OThe Macau Health Services Department advised, last Friday, that healthcare professionals and “high-risk people”, including those who engage in “arbitrary sexual acts or have multiple sexual partners”, be vaccinated against mpox, with two doses.
Vaccination against mpox is free for residents with resident status. But for workers coming from overseas, including mainland China, two doses of the vaccine cost 3,460 patacas (392 euros).
“Who would be willing to get the vaccine?” asked Benedicta Palcon, a representative of the Greens Philippines Migrant Workers Union.
According to official data, the median monthly income of the employed population in Macau was 17,900 patacas (2,026 euros) in the second quarter of this year.
But both Palcon and the president of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union in Macau, Yosa Wari Yanti, estimated that domestic workers currently earn between 4,000 and 6,000 patacas (between 448 and 679 euros) per month in Macau.
“It is impossible to spend practically an entire salary on a vaccine. In addition to our food and accommodation expenses, almost all of us send money home to our families,” Yosa stressed.
Macau had 181,108 workers without resident status at the end of June, representing 26.4 percent of the population of the semi-autonomous Chinese region, according to data from the Public Security Police Force.
Yosa recalled that non-residents “also contribute to Macau’s economy” and warned that making vaccination difficult could facilitate a possible future outbreak of mpox.
Formerly known as “monkeypox”, this is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans, but is also transmitted through close physical contact with a person infected with the virus.
The new variant of the virus can be easily transmitted between two individuals, without the need for sexual contact, and is considered more dangerous than the 2022 variant.
“The maids work six days a week in the homes of local families and some even sleep there. If one family member gets sick, we all get sick,” Yosa explained.
In September and December, Macau recorded two cases of mpox.
On Friday, China announced that it would be stepping up border surveillance, requiring all planes and ships coming from areas affected by the disease to comply with health measures, and establishing screening protocols for travelers coming from regions with active outbreaks, in a set of measures that will be in force for the next six months.
This is the second time in two years that the infectious disease has been considered a potential threat to international health, an alert that was initially raised in May last year.
Read Also: IOM calls for 16.5 million to contain Mpox outbreak in East Africa
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2619041/custo-desencoraja-vacinacao-contra-mpox-entre-migrantes-em-macau
