The European Commission has bought medicines to treat more than 10,000 monkeypox patients. The Netherlands can also claim the prescribed courses of the virus inhibitor tecovirimat.
The monkeypox virus seems to be on the decline in Europe for weeks, “but that does not mean that the danger has passed or that we can lower our defenses”, says European Commissioner Stella Kyriakides (Health). Since the virus reached the EU, more than 24,000 infections have been reported there, of which a good 1200 in the Netherlands.
During the outbreak, the Netherlands had enough vaccines to vaccinate risk groups, but also had to use tecovirimat once. The Netherlands took over that cure from France, the Ministry of Health said. In the future, the Netherlands can call on the emergency stock of more than 10,000 treatments from the European disaster relief service rescEU. All this in anticipation of the larger order that the EU has jointly placed with the American manufacturer of the drug.