Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology is testing a vector vaccine against monkeypox, the Izvestia newspaper reports with reference to Andrey Prodeus, the chief freelance pediatric allergist and immunologist of the Ministry of Health of the Moscow region.
“Smallpox vaccine is not produced in the Russian Federation now. The Soviet product was a live vaccine, the type which is not used any more. The only official institution in Russia that has smallpox virus strains is Vector. And now it is developing a vector poxvirus vaccine, which is not a live vaccine,” Prodeus explained. According to him, the new vaccine “is almost at phase 3 of clinical trials.”
The specialist recalled that there is no separate vaccine against monkeypox. But research has proved that people vaccinated against smallpox (black pox) also have immunity against monkeypox.
On July 12, the first case of monkeypox has been confirmed in Russia. The disease was detected in a man who returned from a trip to Europe and went to a medical institution with a characteristic rash.