London: move by rich countries to buy in large quantities monkeypox The vaccine, refusing to share doses with Africa, could leave millions of people vulnerable against a more dangerous version of the disease and risk continued spread of the virus to humans, public health officials are warning.
Critics fear a repeat of the horrific inequality problems seen during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The mistakes we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic are already being repeated,” said Dr. Boghuma Kabisen said titanjiAssistant Professor of Medicine at Emory University.
While wealthy countries have ordered millions of vaccines to prevent monkeypox within their borders, none have announced plans to share doses with Africa, where a more deadly form of monkeypox is spreading than in the West. .
So far, more than 21,000 monkeypox cases have been reported in nearly 80 countries since May, with about 75 suspected deaths occurring in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and the Congo. On Friday, Brazil and Spain reported deaths linked to monkeypox, the first reported outside Africa. On Saturday, Spain reported the second death of monkeypox.
“The African countries dealing with monkeypox outbreaks for decades have been turned into a footnote in the conversation about the global response,” Titanji said.
Scientists say that unlike campaigns to stop COVID-19, mass vaccination against monkeypox will not be necessary. They think that targeted use of available doses, along with other measures, could stave off recently named extended epidemics. World Health Organization as a global emergency.
Yet while monkeypox is much harder to spread than Covid-19, experts warn that if the disease spreads to the general population – currently in Europe and North America it is almost exclusively among gay and bisexual men. The need for vaccines may intensify, especially if the virus enters new areas.
On Thursday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for the continent to be a priority for vaccines, saying it was again being left behind.
“If we are not safe, the rest of the world is not safe,” said Ahmed Ogwell, acting director of the Africa CDC.
Although it has been endemic in parts of Africa for decades, monkeypox mostly jumps to people from infected wild animals and does not usually spread far beyond the continent.
Experts suspect that monkeypox outbreaks in North America and Europe may have occurred long before the disease spread to Africa. sex on two waves in Spain and Belgium. Currently, more than 70% of the world’s monkeypox cases are in Europe, and 98% of cases are in men who have sex with men.
WHO is developing a Vaccine-Sharing Mechanism for the affected countries, but has released some details about how it might work. The UN health agency has made no guarantees about prioritizing poor countries in Africa, saying only that vaccines will be distributed based on epidemiological need.
Some experts worry that the mechanism could mimic the problems seen with COVAX, which was created in 2020 by WHO and partners to ensure poor countries get Covid-19 shots. He repeatedly missed the goal of sharing vaccines with poor countries and at times relied on donations.
“It is not enough just to ask countries to share,” said Sharmila Shetty, vaccine adviser at Médecins Sans Frontieres. “The longer monkeypox spreads, the more likely it is for new animals to move into reservoirs or spread to the human general population,” she said. “If that happens, vaccine requirements could change substantially.”
At the moment, there is only one manufacturer of the most advanced monkeypox vaccine: the Danish company Bavarian Nordic. It has a production capacity of about 30 million doses this year, with about 16 million vaccines now available.
In May, Bavarian Nordic asked the US to release more than 215,000 doses, which was due to be received “to assist with international requests the company had received”, and the US complied, according to Bill Hall of Health. A spokesman for the Department of Humanitarian and Human Services. The US will still receive the dosage, but at a later date.
The company declined to specify to which countries it is allocating the dose.
Hall said the US has not made any other commitments to share vaccines. With 13 million in reserve, the US has ordered the most doses to date, although only about 1.4 million have been delivered.
Some African officials said it would be wise to stock some supplements on the continent, especially given the difficulties Western countries have in preventing monkeypox.
“I really didn’t think it would spread very far because monkeypox doesn’t spread like that covidSalim Abdul Karim, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. “Africa should buy some vaccines when they need it, but we must prioritize diagnosis and surveillance so that we know who to target.” he said. “Normally, you’re able to overtake a disease like monkeypox, but I’m concerned[the number of new cases]hasn’t come down yet.”
Doctor. Ingrid KatzoA global health expert at Harvard University said the monkeypox epidemic was “potentially manageable” if limited vaccines were distributed appropriately. He believed it was still possible to prevent monkeypox from turning into an epidemic, but “we need to be thoughtful in our prevention strategies and speed up our response.”
In Spain, which has Europe’s largest outbreak of monkeypox, the demand for vaccines far exceeds the supply.
“There is a real gap between the number of vaccines we currently have available and the people who are likely to benefit,” said Pep Cole, a medical director at a health center in Barcelona.
Danielle Roffin, 41, was overjoyed to be recently offered a dose. He said he decided to get vaccinated for the same reasons he had been immunized against Covid-19.
“I feel confident that this is a way to stop the spread,” he said. “We (gay men) are a group at risk.”
Critics fear a repeat of the horrific inequality problems seen during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The mistakes we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic are already being repeated,” said Dr. Boghuma Kabisen said titanjiAssistant Professor of Medicine at Emory University.
While wealthy countries have ordered millions of vaccines to prevent monkeypox within their borders, none have announced plans to share doses with Africa, where a more deadly form of monkeypox is spreading than in the West. .
So far, more than 21,000 monkeypox cases have been reported in nearly 80 countries since May, with about 75 suspected deaths occurring in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and the Congo. On Friday, Brazil and Spain reported deaths linked to monkeypox, the first reported outside Africa. On Saturday, Spain reported the second death of monkeypox.
“The African countries dealing with monkeypox outbreaks for decades have been turned into a footnote in the conversation about the global response,” Titanji said.
Scientists say that unlike campaigns to stop COVID-19, mass vaccination against monkeypox will not be necessary. They think that targeted use of available doses, along with other measures, could stave off recently named extended epidemics. World Health Organization as a global emergency.
Yet while monkeypox is much harder to spread than Covid-19, experts warn that if the disease spreads to the general population – currently in Europe and North America it is almost exclusively among gay and bisexual men. The need for vaccines may intensify, especially if the virus enters new areas.
On Thursday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for the continent to be a priority for vaccines, saying it was again being left behind.
“If we are not safe, the rest of the world is not safe,” said Ahmed Ogwell, acting director of the Africa CDC.
Although it has been endemic in parts of Africa for decades, monkeypox mostly jumps to people from infected wild animals and does not usually spread far beyond the continent.
Experts suspect that monkeypox outbreaks in North America and Europe may have occurred long before the disease spread to Africa. sex on two waves in Spain and Belgium. Currently, more than 70% of the world’s monkeypox cases are in Europe, and 98% of cases are in men who have sex with men.
WHO is developing a Vaccine-Sharing Mechanism for the affected countries, but has released some details about how it might work. The UN health agency has made no guarantees about prioritizing poor countries in Africa, saying only that vaccines will be distributed based on epidemiological need.
Some experts worry that the mechanism could mimic the problems seen with COVAX, which was created in 2020 by WHO and partners to ensure poor countries get Covid-19 shots. He repeatedly missed the goal of sharing vaccines with poor countries and at times relied on donations.
“It is not enough just to ask countries to share,” said Sharmila Shetty, vaccine adviser at Médecins Sans Frontieres. “The longer monkeypox spreads, the more likely it is for new animals to move into reservoirs or spread to the human general population,” she said. “If that happens, vaccine requirements could change substantially.”
At the moment, there is only one manufacturer of the most advanced monkeypox vaccine: the Danish company Bavarian Nordic. It has a production capacity of about 30 million doses this year, with about 16 million vaccines now available.
In May, Bavarian Nordic asked the US to release more than 215,000 doses, which was due to be received “to assist with international requests the company had received”, and the US complied, according to Bill Hall of Health. A spokesman for the Department of Humanitarian and Human Services. The US will still receive the dosage, but at a later date.
The company declined to specify to which countries it is allocating the dose.
Hall said the US has not made any other commitments to share vaccines. With 13 million in reserve, the US has ordered the most doses to date, although only about 1.4 million have been delivered.
Some African officials said it would be wise to stock some supplements on the continent, especially given the difficulties Western countries have in preventing monkeypox.
“I really didn’t think it would spread very far because monkeypox doesn’t spread like that covidSalim Abdul Karim, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. “Africa should buy some vaccines when they need it, but we must prioritize diagnosis and surveillance so that we know who to target.” he said. “Normally, you’re able to overtake a disease like monkeypox, but I’m concerned[the number of new cases]hasn’t come down yet.”
Doctor. Ingrid KatzoA global health expert at Harvard University said the monkeypox epidemic was “potentially manageable” if limited vaccines were distributed appropriately. He believed it was still possible to prevent monkeypox from turning into an epidemic, but “we need to be thoughtful in our prevention strategies and speed up our response.”
In Spain, which has Europe’s largest outbreak of monkeypox, the demand for vaccines far exceeds the supply.
“There is a real gap between the number of vaccines we currently have available and the people who are likely to benefit,” said Pep Cole, a medical director at a health center in Barcelona.
Danielle Roffin, 41, was overjoyed to be recently offered a dose. He said he decided to get vaccinated for the same reasons he had been immunized against Covid-19.
“I feel confident that this is a way to stop the spread,” he said. “We (gay men) are a group at risk.”