Gov’t: Past cowpox vaccination provides 85% protection against monkeypox
People born in the 1980s or earlier should have 85% protection against being infected with monkeypox, neurosurgeon Warren Tai, medical director of the public hospital, said yesterday.
Tai had been asked, at a regular press conference, about the Health Bureau’s (SSM) plan to fight monkeypox.
Tai explained that the monkeypox virus, a relatively stable DNA virus, was first discovered in 1958. He explained that it does not mutate as easily as SARS-CoV-2, which is an RNA virus.
“With this characteristic, the [probability] of a mass outbreak is not high,” Tai said.
The viruses that cause monkeypox, cowpox and smallpox are “relatives,” according to Tai, meaning people who are vaccinated against one type of pox will have protection against the others.
In 1796, it was discovered by accident that inoculating people with cowpox may prevent them from getting smallpox, which was severe and often fatal at the time. English doctor Edward Jenner observed that milkmaids who had contracted the cowpox virus were protected from smallpox.
“People born in Macau including the 1980s are [generally] vaccinated against cowpox and smallpox,” Tai recalled, adding that the resulting “protection will last for quite a long time too.”
However, the medical doctor did not describe the protection as life-long.
It was also announced at the press conference that, next week, the SSM will recommend that its superintendent, the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture, add monkeypox to the legal list of infectious diseases. Because the list is legislated, alterations to the list must be passed by the parliament.
For the time being, the SSM has already notified local medical practitioners of the measures that should be taken when monkeypox is suspected in patients. In addition, Tai said that local medical staff have been trained to distinguish and identify monkeypox infections.
The SSM has made enquiries with local agencies about the availability of vaccines and medications.
