At the proposal of the Federal Ministry of Health and with the expert opinion of the Public Health Institute of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), the FBiH Government made a decision at yesterday’s session to declare monkeypox an infectious disease of interest to the FBiH.
The Government points out that the World Health Organization (WHO) assesses the overall risk at the global level as moderate, but that at the regional level the risk is considered high in one (EURO) and moderate in five other WHO regions.
The Institute for Public Health of the FBiH gave an expert opinion that monkeypox should be considered an infectious disease, the prevention and suppression of which is of interest to the FBiH.
Protection measures that should be applied in the event of monkeypox outbreaks were also proposed, and the expert advisory body for infectious diseases of the Federal Ministry of Health developed guidelines for the care and treatment of those suffering from the monkeypox virus.
It was also decided that based on the currently assessed risks, mass vaccination against monkeypox is not necessary, and that in managing the response for this situation, vaccination should be considered as an additional measure.
The government undertook to procure the vaccine against monkeypox – Ankara Bavarian Nordic (MVA-BN) offered through the Agreement on the joint public procurement of medical countermeasures for BiH, in the amount of 1.000 doses of vaccines for the needs of the population of FBiH, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
