Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa said it’s not true that the city has a stockpile of monkeypox vaccines that aren’t being distributed during a press conference at Chase Brexton Health Care in the Mt Vernon neighborhood.
Baltimore City has received 200 doses of the vaccine which are given by appointment only and many of the vaccines are already allocated.
“We’re actively working to distribute those 200 doses in an equitable way to those individuals at highest risk of contracting and spreading monkeypox in Baltimore,” Dzirasa said.
Monkeypox is a virus that spreads between people through very close contact. Symptoms may include a fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and potentially rashes and lesions on the face and hands. Most people recover within a month and the incubation period is between five days to three weeks.
The Maryland Department of Health was sent 6,519 doses from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.
Statewide there are 87 confirmed cases of monkeypox, of which 21 are in the city of Baltimore.
