The News
ADDIS ABABA — Pharmaceutical giants and rich nations need to collaborate with African countries to improve access to mpox vaccines, the head of the World Health Organization told Semafor Africa.
An outbreak of the infectious disease struck DR Congo before spreading to neighboring nations including Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda.
Affected countries have struggled to contain the spread of the disease — formerly called monkeypox — which is typically contracted through physical contact and whose symptoms include fever and painful rashes that spread around the body.
“Access to vaccines is a major challenge for African countries, in part due to the available supply and high price”, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
He added that to increase the number of vaccines in African countries, “a multi-pronged approach is needed that involves strong collaboration with vaccine manufacturing countries, reduced pricing and in-country preparation.”
The WHO chief also called for donor nations that stockpiled vaccines to make them available to vulnerable nations ahead of a planned legally binding international agreement that is set to be introduced at the next World Health Assembly on the promotion of health equity.
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In August, the WHO declared the outbreak in parts of Africa a “global health emergency.”
Thousands of people in DR Congo alone have been identified as a potential risk of carrying the virus and hundreds have died as the nation continues to appeal to donor nations to be provided with the vaccines. So far, it has received little as the virus spreads within the nation.
Outside of Africa, only Sweden and Thailand have discovered the virus among their populations. More than 70 non-Africa nations have readily available vaccines, some of whom have been accused of stockpiling while African nations wait.
Rwanda last week became the first African nation to start vaccinating its citizens after it received 1,000 vaccines from Nigeria, which shared shots donated by the United States.
The WHO has repeatedly called for fairness and access to vital medicines to address health inequality challenges that affect developing nations most acutely.
“There is a recognition of the need to strengthen collaboration between countries, with emphasis on equity, to protect communities against the risks posed by pathogens,” Tedros said.
Samuel’s view
Despite the WHO designating the mpox outbreak a global health emergency, little support has come from pharmaceuticals and donor nations to the African nations worst affected.
Access to Medicine Foundation, a health equity advocate association based in the Netherlands, has highlighted that most people in low income nations still lack access to lifesaving medications for treatable health conditions.
Jayasree K Iyer, who heads Access to Medicine Foundation, believes few lessons were learned from the COVID-19 pandemic that exposed the lack of vaccine availability in African nations.
“COVID-19 has highlighted the great disparity in access to essential pharmaceutical products, where products available in rich countries are not available in regions in Africa,” he said. “The continent suffers from some of the highest burden of disease yet availability is one of the lowest in the world.”
The View From DR Congo
Thousands have been infected with mpox in DR Congo over the last year and hundreds of deaths have been recorded.
The country received its first vaccine shipment this month. Global vaccine alliance group Gavi imported 215,000 doses, donated from the European Union. But that is far short of the 3.5 million vaccine doses that DR Congo’s health minister, Roger Kamba, said is needed to protect the country’s population.