The High Authority of Health recommends, in an opinion published this Monday, September 2, the administration of a booster dose of the vaccine against mpox (formerly called “monkeypox”) for people who were vaccinated against this disease in 2022.
In an opinion issued on Monday, September 2, the High Authority for Health (HAS), an independent public authority, recommends the administration of a booster dose to people who were vaccinated against mpox (formerly called “monkeypox”) two years ago.
The Directorate General of Health, responsible for public health policy, had contacted the HAS on August 16 to update its vaccination recommendations against this viral disease which is experiencing a resurgence in several African countries. Until then, people who received the MPOX vaccine during the 2022 epidemic did not have specific recommendations to follow. However, the HAS emphasizes that “uncertainties remain about the duration of protection induced by the vaccine”.
In its opinion published this Monday, the authority therefore recommends “the administration of a single booster dose in people who have already had a complete primary vaccination (1, 2 or 3 doses depending on the case)”.
This booster should be given two years after the last dose received. It does not apply to people who received a smallpox vaccine in childhood and then a single booster dose with the MVA-BN vaccine since 2022, or to people who have been infected with MPOX.
Populations at risk of exposure affected by the campaign
In France, vaccination against MPOX is recommended as a preventive measure for people with a “high risk of exposure” to this disease. According to the HAS, these are “men who have sex with men reporting multiple sexual partners” and “trans people reporting multiple sexual partners”.
“People in prostitution” and “professionals in places of sexual consumption” are also among the populations for whom this vaccine is recommended. Finally, the HAS recommends it for “partners or people sharing the same living space as people at very high risk of exposure mentioned above”.
In France, vaccination against MPOX is also recommended post-exposure, i.e. for people in a situation of risky contact with an infected person. The HAS also recommends it for immunocompromised people who have had close contact with a “risky contact person”. Vaccination is available in dedicated centers in France.
126 cases in France since the beginning of the year
The disease is characterized by rashes and fever. It caused a global epidemic in 2022, before experiencing a resurgence this year. The resurgence of mpox in Africa, affecting the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other countries on the continent (including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda), and the emergence of a new variant (1b) prompted the WHO to trigger its highest level of global health alert on 14 August.
The virus circulates partly through sexual intercourse, but also through non-sexual contact. The mortality rate of MPOX is difficult to assess and estimates vary between 1% and 10%. It depends on the state of the health systems, as well as the category to which the virus causing the disease belongs.
According to Santé publique France, cited by the HAS, France had recorded 126 cases since the beginning of the year as of August 20. “All the cases concerned adults aged between 18 and 65. Only one concerned a woman,” underlines the HAS. “Between May 2022 and August 2024, SPF estimates that approximately 155,000 doses of the vaccine” against mpox were administered in France,” according to the HAS.
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