France currently has five “proven” cases of monkey pox, the new Minister of Health Brigitte Bourguignon said on Wednesday, adding that the country had the necessary stocks to vaccinate contact cases as recommended by health authorities.
"We have five proven cases in France," said the minister on RTL.
“We are not expecting an outbreak of the disease, we are taking the necessary precautions, therefore vigilance in this case, and because it is a virus that we no longer saw in Europe”.
"Recommendations have been made, to identify, detect, and then isolate," she added.
As soon as “the recommendation” of the health authorities on the vaccination of people in contact with the disease “will be established”, “we are ready”.
Read alsoMonkey pox: how to explain this upsurge in cases in Europe and North America?
"The stocks are there, we have strategic stocks and it will be targeted vaccination, we are not talking about total vaccination," said Brigitte Bourguignon.
“Beyond the caregivers” in contact with a patient, these are the “contact cases” in the patient's entourage.
Monkey pox: "There are strategic stocks of vaccines", reassures @BrigBourguignon in #RTLMatin ⤵️ https://t.co/os8BvKjSXI
– RTL France (@RTLFrance) May 25, 2022
In an opinion issued on Tuesday, the High Authority for Health had recommended the vaccination of adults, including health professionals, who had contact with a patient.
The Minister also indicated that she would discuss next Monday with her European counterparts the “strategies that we are going to adopt” regarding this disease.
“For now, the situation is under control, it is under control,” she said.
"Small outbreak" of the Covid in the fall
About the Covid-19, “you will not hear me say that the pandemic is behind us”, even if “the hardest part is behind us”, underlined Ms. Bourguignon.
She warned of a return or "a small outbreak" of the Covid-19 epidemic in the fall and encouraged those over 60 to take the second booster dose of the vaccine.
“We ask the most fragile people to continue to have barrier gestures, protect themselves, get vaccinated”.
Vaccination of children under five will depend on health authorities, she added.
On Monday, the Pfizer and BioNTech groups announced that their jointly developed vaccine was safe and effective for children aged six months to five years.
“It will be the health authorities who will tell us, or not” if it is desirable to vaccinate very young children, noted the minister.
"We have always relied on scientific advice, and so far that is not the case."
