About 500,000 more monkeypox vaccine doses have been ordered by the U.S., Politico is reporting.
Word of the additional vaccines came from manufacturer Bavarian Nordic, according to Politico, which noted the order is larger than earlier ones for the U.S. The outlet said the order represents a significant escalation in the fight against the monkeypox outbreak.
An earlier order of 36,000 doses was to have been delivered to the U.S. this week.
The new order will bring the number of U.S.-owned doses from 1.4 million to 1.9 million this year. Many of those doses are held by the manufacturer until the U.S. requests them.
Bulk materials owned by the U.S. will be used to manufacture the doses. And Politico reported the bulk materials will be made into 13 million freeze-dried dozes from 2023 to 2025.
Just 45 cases of monkeypox across 16 states have been reported by the CDC. However, officials are concerned the outbreak could continue to increase as it has in other countries.
"We don't want people to panic or be afraid and think that it's like COVID or maybe worse,'' CNBC reported that Sylvie Briand, the World Health Organization's director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said in a briefing on the outbreak last week.
''This monkeypox disease is not COVID-19; it is a different virus.''