Nashville expands who can get a monkeypox vaccine

The Metro Public Health Department has expanded eligibility for who can get a monkeypox vaccine to include “presumed” contacts of confirmed cases.

Until now, the shots distributed by the federal government have been reserved for those deemed close contacts through case investigations — meaning, if someone with a confirmed case tells contact tracers about a close contact, they became eligible. Now, even if someone has not been identified through contact tracing efforts, they can get a vaccine if they believe they’ve been in close contact with someone who has monkeypox.

Health officials are asking those interested in the vaccine to call a communicable disease hotline: 615-340-5632.

There is a multi-day window between exposure and the onset of symptoms during which the monkeypox vaccine, which is the same as the smallpox vaccine, is effective at reducing or eliminating symptoms, which include a painful and extended rash along with fever and other flu-like symptoms.

Tennessee has been shipped roughly 2,400 doses and is eligible to get nearly 11,000, according to a federal database. The first cases in the state appeared in Tennessee but have now been found in Memphis as well, with a total of 37 cases statewide.

Nashville still isn’t opening the vaccine to anyone considered high risk as some cities, like New York, with much larger outbreaks have. Right now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say men who have sex with men are at the highest risk, though monkeypox doesn’t just spread through intimate contact.