Interim Chief Medical Officer Professor Breda Smyth has said that the roll-out of the monkeypox vaccine to those deemed to be at risk will begin next week.
She said that the initial plan to roll out limited doses here was paused, pending receipt of new advice from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC), which now means they way the vaccine is given will enable more doses to be available.
New recommendations have been accepted in relation to the way the monkeypox vaccine is to be administered.
The changes recommended by NIAC could mean a five-fold increase in available doses of vaccine, according to health authorities.
There is a global shortage of monkeypox vaccine.
Up to now, the vaccine has been given as a subcutaneous injection, into a deep layer of fatty tissue in the arm.
Recently, the European Medicines Agency told countries they could change the way the vaccine is administered, so that it is given intradermally, just below the skin.
This way, a smaller dose is needed, meaning that available doses could be increased five-fold.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said he has accepted the NIAC recommendations, endorsed by interim CMO Prof Breda Smyth.
The change is an interim one, while the vaccine remains in short supply.
Latest figures show there have been 126 confirmed cases of monkeypox in Ireland.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
HIV Ireland welcomed the vaccine change, but called for the vaccination programme for the group identified at risk to begin in earnest, to protect the community identified.
Adam Shanley, who heads up its MPOWER Programme, said that the changes should see vaccines available for around 3,000 people rather than 650 as originally envisaged due to supply problems.
He said that the limited supply of vaccines will now go much further but as far as he was aware, no vaccinations against monkeypox had started under the planned at-risk campaign.
