IRELAND HAS secured an order of vaccines against monkeypox, the Health Service Executive has confirmed.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, CEO of the HSE Paul Reid said he expected the vaccines to be delivered "very shortly and that it is "more likely than not" that Ireland would see cases of monkeypox in its health system.
"We've secured an order of vaccines that we expect to deliver very shortly," he said.
"We have put in place a whole set of incident management teams, and putting communication out with the health service in terms of what to monitor".
Earlier this week, the HSE confirmed that a team had been set up to monitor and react to the virus.
He made the comment after the first case of monkeypox was confirmed in Northern Ireland on Thursday.
He also moved to clarify how the illness spreads and its risk to the public, and said consideration would be given to vaccinating healthcare workers following advice from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee on the matter.
"It is a mild, self-limiting illness and most people do recover in weeks," Reid said.
Tánaist Leo Varadkar also said on Thursday that it was "inevitable" that monkeypox will be detected in Ireland.
"We're not aware of any cases in the Republic of Ireland as of yet, but it's almost inevitable - in fact, it is inevitable - that there will be cases in the Republic of Ireland," he said.
