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There are now more than 53,000 cases of monkeypox worldwide, with all but 511 outside of Central and West Africa (at the time of writing). Vaccines and antiviral drugs are being recommended by the World Health Organization and other public health bodies on the assumption that they are likely to be effective against monkeypox. The modified vaccinia Ankara vaccine from Bavarian Nordic (MVA-BN) is now commonly referred to as ‘the monkeypox vaccine’. The caveat is that neither the vaccine nor the antiviral drug, tecovirimat (TPOXX, from SIGA Technologies), was originally developed for monkeypox, and only the older vaccine formulations such as ACAM2000 were tested for efficacy against the original target, smallpox, in humans.