EDINBURG — Hidalgo County health officials began administering a limited number of the monkeypox vaccine on Wednesday to high-risk populations.
The county recently received 500 vials of the vaccine from the Texas Department of State Health Services, according to a news release from county health officials.
The 500 vials can provide 2,500 doses of the vaccine to Hidalgo County residents, but because each vaccine recipient must receive two shots, the initial vaccine allotment will only cover 1,250 patients.
“Unfortunately, because of the limited supply of the vaccine nationwide, Hidalgo County and our neighbors received a relatively small number of dosages,” chief administrative officer for Hidalgo County Health and Human Services Eduardo Olivarez said. “The state has already alerted us that new vials of vaccine may not arrive until the end of November so health officials agreed to target those most at-risk with this initial supply of vaccines.”
As such, the monkeypox vaccine is not yet open to the general public, health officials said.
Instead, the short supply will be shared with those that are most vulnerable to the virus, including HIV-positive patients at Westbrook clinics in McAllen and Harlingen.
“Hidalgo County’s health department also went through its existing client list and reached out to the highest risk patients to arrange for the vaccine to be administered to them,” the release said.
There are still no reported cases of the virus in Hidalgo County, but one case was confirmed in neighboring Cameron County.
Hidalgo health officials said that while neighboring counties also received a small allotment, they too agreed to target at-risk populations.
