CDC weighs monkeypox vaccine for kids as outbreak grows: 6 updates 

The CDC is developing a protocol to allow the use of Bavarian Nordic's Jynneos monkeypox vaccine in children, if it becomes necessary, according to agency meeting documents cited by Bloomberg in a June 23 report. 

The vaccine is currently approved for use in adults and is administered as two shots. The nation has 36,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine immediately available in the strategic national stockpile and has ordered 500,000 more. The U.S. has a greater supply of Emergent BioSolutions' ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine on hand, though the former is preferred. 

Five more updates:

1. As of June 23, 173 monkeypox cases had been confirmed across 24 states and Washington, D.C. Globally, there have been more than 3,000 infections across 44 countries.

2. Amid concerns that low testing capabilities are masking true infection rates, the CDC is expanding testing by shipping tests to five commercial labs: Labcorp, Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics, Aegis Science and Sonic Healthcare. Providers will be able to use the tests by early July, with the companies' ramping up testing capacities throughout the month.

3. While testing is beginning to ramp up, a federal official told The Washington Post only 700 tests had been performed in the U.S. as of June 17.

4. Two federal officials involved in the monkeypox response told the Post there are "significantly more" cases across the nation than reported because testing has not yet expanded beyond a network of public health labs. 

5. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on June 23 opened a temporary clinic offering the Jynneos vaccine to "all gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men ages 18 and older" who may have recently been exposed to monkeypox, it said in a news release. It's the first U.S. jurisdiction to expand access to vaccines beyond close contacts of those with a confirmed infection, The New York Times reported. The Times reported long lines on June 23, the clinic's first day, with clinic workers having to turn people away and ask them to make appointments for next week by early that afternoon. There have been 23 confirmed monkeypox cases across the state. 

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