DALLAS — Dallas County Health and Human Services is preparing to administer the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine "intradermally," which means between the layers of the skin, instead of under the skin.
The FDA issued an emergency use authorization for intradermal injection Tuesday. The procedure considerably stretches the supply of the vaccine, DCHHS Director Dr. Philip Huang told WFAA.
"It multiplies the number of people, essentially, that we can administer vaccine to, by five," Dr. Huang said.
The math is easy.
Right now, Dallas County has about 1,500 vials of vaccine. Multiplied by five, intradermally, those vials can vaccinate 7,500 North Texans.
But not quite yet.
Dr. Huang said his team can't administer the shot intradermally, immediately.
"Hopefully in the next couple of days, I don't know exactly," he told WFAA.
That's because the new procedure requires new syringes and needles, Dr. Huang said.
"We need to sort of re-train the staff with the new procedure. But we are in, going through that process as we speak," he said.
And when they're done, Dr. Huang anticipates his team will be able to expand vaccine eligibility even further.
Right now, these are the only two groups eligible at DCHHS:
- Persons who had close, intimate, skin-to-skin contact with someone who has tested positive for monkeypox.
- Men (cisgender and transgender) 18 and older who have sex with men and who also have had multiple or anonymous sex partners in the past 14 days.