REPLY
We read the letter by Danon and Sutter (1) and would like to mention our comments about it. In our paper (2), we discussed the possibility of the use of LC16m8 in persons who are immunocompromised on the basis of animal experiments, including an immunocompromised monkey model (2). We agree with the authors of the letter in that LC16m8 should not be used at present directly in immunocompromised persons because no clinical evidence about the safety of LC16m8 in them is available yet. However, we argue that LC16m8 could be used in areas of monkeypox endemicity where some immunocompromised persons such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients and AIDS patients live together provided that they are excluded from the pool of potential vaccinees by advanced clinical diagnosis and that they are also prevented from direct contact with vaccinees for a short period of time after vaccination. For prevention of monkeypox infection, LC16m8 is expected to be much more effective than a nonreplicating vaccine such as modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) (3, 4).
Footnotes
This is a response to a letter by Danon and Sutter (doi:10.1128/CVI.00782-14).
REFERENCES
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