US officials are rushing to buy 13 million doses of Monkeypox vaccines after the first case of the rare infection was confirmed on US soil and a new possible case has been detected in New York.

The US government has placed an $119m order with Bavarian Nordic for the Jynneos vaccine, which is effective against both the Monkeypox virus and Smallpox, the biotech company revealed.

A further $180m is also ready and waiting to buy even more vaccines if or when it is needed, altogether enabling the country to get 13 million doses into the arms of the American people.

The move comes as the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene confirmed it is investigating a possible monkeypox case in the Big Apple.

The patient, who is showing symptoms of the virus, is being treated at Bellevue Hospital in the heart of Manhattan.

Health officials said the individual is being cared for in isolation while they are currently awaiting test results to confirm the potential case.

If preliminary tests come back positive from the Health Department’s Public Health Lab, they will be sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for confirmation, the agency said in a press release.

Contact tracing is already underway to track down anyone who may have come into close contact with the patient as health officials are desperate to avoid a repeat of the Covid-19 crisis which crippled the city’s healthcare system.

In the early days of the pandemic in spring 2020, New York City rapidly became the global virus epicenter, with 815 lives lost in a single deadliest day in April of that year.

Hospitals were on the brink of collapse as healthcare workers were overwhelmed with sick patients and bodies piled up in refrigerated trucks across the city.

While Monkeypox is less contagious than Covid-19 and a vaccine is already available, the World Health Organization has started holding daily emergency meetings with cases spreading across the globe.

In the US, the CDC is urging the public not to panic as the agency is now investigating at least six possible cases of the infection.

The six individuals are being monitored after they sat near an infected traveller on a flight from Nigeria to the UK earlier this month, the CDC said.

None of the six individuals are presenting any symptoms for Monkeypox and are said to be heathy and at low risk of contracting Monkeypox.

The New York patient appears to not be included in the six.

CDC official Jennifer McQuiston told CNN that “the general public should not be concerned” about the sudden rise in infections of the rare illness.

“We have a level of scientific concern about what we’re seeing because this is a very unusual situation,” she said.

“Monkeypox is normally only reported in West Africa or Central Africa, and we don’t see it in the United States or in Europe – and the number of cases that are being reported is definitely outside the level of normal for what we would see.

“At the same time, there really aren’t that many cases that are being reported – I think maybe a dozen, a couple dozen – so, the general public should not be concerned that they are at immediate risk for Monkeypox.”

This comes after a Massachusetts man became the first confirmed case on US soil this year.

On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced the case in the man who had recently returned from a trip to Canada where he had travelled in private transport.

The patient is in a good condition in Massachusetts General Hospital.

The state agency said that there is “no risk to the public” and that it is working closely with the CDC and other health officials to identify anyone who may have been in contact with the patient while he was infectious.

The last time a case was confirmed in the US was in November when an American tested positive for the infection in Maryland after returning from a trip to Nigeria.

In July, another case was confirmed in Texas in a US citizen who had travelled from Nigeria to the US on two commercial flights.

The first ever case of human Monkeypox detected outside of Africa was on US soil back in 2003 when there was an outbreak across six states.

In total, 47 confirmed and probable cases were reported in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

All of the patients contracted the infection after coming into contact with pet prairie dogs which had been held near imported small mammals from Ghana, according to the CDC.

The CDC is also tracking multiple clusters of monkeypox that have been reported in early- to mid-May in several countries that don’t normally report monkeypox, including in Europe and North America, the agency said.

It is not yet clear how the individuals were exposed to the rare infection – which doesn’t naturally occur in the US – but experts are exploring the possible spread through sex after confirmed cases include men who said they had had sex with other men.

Monkeypox cases are rising across the world, with cases now also detected in Canada, the UK, Australia, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden.

The first ever Monkeypox case was recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo back in 1970.

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