Taken

Joel* told the Guardian he sought advice on testing and vaccination after becoming aware a close contact had been exposed to monkeypox and had developed ...

A UKHSA spokesperson said: “A decision on whether or not to offer a vaccine to a close contact of a confirmed monkeypox case is a clinical one made by trained health protection teams who carry out detailed assessments of each case. When Matt rang 111, he was advised to isolate for 21 days but was not offered a vaccine because his contact was yet to be tested and confirmed as a case. By the time he was tested three days later, he had five lesions. However, Joel said he struggled to access testing in London over the jubilee bank holiday and was turned down for a vaccine, initially being told it was only available to healthcare staff. However the agency itself has flagged challenges, “as most cases reported having sexual contact with new or casual partners, sometimes in the context of cruising grounds or during chemsex, frequently where contact details were unavailable for tracing”. “It has taken so long for [public health bodies] to trace [close contacts] that they are going to have to get out and effectively proactively vaccinate a lot of at risk groups to stop this,” he said.