India is developing a vaccine against monkeypox

One of India’s largest vaccine developers, Serum Institute of India (SII), is working on creating a vaccine against monkeypox ((mpox), hoping to have it ready by the end of the current year. reported The Times of India, citing a statement by SII Director General Adar Poonawalla.

“Due to the global health situation announced worldwide in relation to the smallpox outbreak, the SII is working on the development of a vaccine against this disease (…). We hope to receive more positive news throughout this year, which we could share,” said Adar Poonawalla.

Last week, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described the monkeypox outbreak in Africa as an extraordinary epidemiological situation of international importance.

“The available vaccines (against monkeypox) show a result of 80 percent, hence they are effective, but live attenuated vaccines could have greater efficacy for the treatment of vulnerable population groups,” he told reporters. the acting director of the Indian anti-CIDA institute, Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar.

Monkeypox is a disease that poses danger to people with weakened immunity. Its characteristic symptoms are headache and muscle pain, inflammation in the lymph nodes, as well as rashes and pustules on the hands and face. The mild development of this disease usually does not need drug therapy, the disease lasts 14 to 21 days and passes on its own.

Hope is born to contain monkeypox

The containment of mpox in Africa has a new lease of life today after the continental epidemiological body announced the start of vaccination in the epicenter of the epidemic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other states.

The DRC is the epicenter of the spread of the most lethal strain of the disease, now present in 12 African states with confirmed cases in at least three of them, according to official statistics, always imprecise in Africa due to the fragility of the systems. health of the continent.

The fears are more tangible since last week the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the spread of the new strain, named clade lb, as a public health emergency of international concern.

In the same statement, the WHO urged pharmaceutical transnationals, the only owners of effective vaccines against mpox, to establish coordination to reduce serum prices and make them affordable for lower-income countries.

The disease is more deadly because it is stealthy and usually presents as a mild illness, but suddenly it worsens and leads to the infected person’s death, reported Prensa Latina.