2024-08-23 10:00:08
A week after Sweden recorded a case of MPOX, the first case of the new variant outside Africa, another case was detected in Thailand on Thursday 22 August in a European who arrived from Africa. These are very isolated cases and the risk of a pandemic is limited, but outbreaks of MPox (formerly monkeypox) in Asia should serve as a warning to countries that are in a position to help control outbreaks in Africa. Now is the time to make vaccines available in large quantities to those who need them.
The accelerated spread of the infectious disease on the African continent led the World Health Organization to declare a COVID-19 epidemic on August 14 “Public health emergency of international concern”. The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the health agency of the African Union, noted that the number of cases in 13 African countries increased by 160% in 2024 compared with 2023, or 18,910 cases and 518 deaths. Particularly affected, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) alone has recorded 96% of cases and 97% of deaths.
The spread of a pre-2022 variant outside Africa may be under control thanks to rapid mobilization of testing, treatments and vaccines. The current epidemic is of a different nature. While the 2022 outbreak outside Africa has primarily affected the gay and bisexual community due to the predominance of sexual transmission, the virus wreaking havoc in the Democratic Republic of Congo is more lethal and primarily affects children. Additionally, a new variant has been circulating among sex workers in South Kivu since September 2023.
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The good news is that there is an effective vaccine to prevent MPOX. The bad news for Africa is that only two laboratories produce the vaccine: Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic, whose MVA-BN vaccine has been approved by most health authorities around the world, and Japan’s KM Biologics, whose LC16 is less widely available Low). Most vaccines and treatments are ordered by rich countries.
Unfortunately, this is a familiar pattern. The Covid-19 pandemic has left painful memories in the South, which saw rich countries monopolizing the vaccines they managed to produce while the deadly virus spread across the globe.
Jean Kasea, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimates that 10 million vaccines will be needed by the end of 2025 to end the pandemic. He contacted the Bavarian Nords, who told him that the goal was not impossible to achieve. In the near future, Dr. Kasea’s hopes are mainly pinned on donations to the most affected countries in the name of humanitarian emergencies: the EU has pledged 215,000 doses of vaccine, France 100,000, and the United States 50,000.
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In the medium term, this is not enough. We must learn lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic and call for more equitable sharing of health toolsACT AcceleratorIt was created in the context of the pandemic and brings together the heads of health agencies and experts, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), which is working to increase access to vaccines globally. This also involves financial assistance for the purchase of vaccines and logistics, as well as technology transfer to enable the continent to produce vaccines. This is based above all on the desire not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
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