August 24,2024
New Delhi: The first 10,000 Mpox vaccines are expected to reach Africa next week. According to Reuters, the Mpox virus continues to spread rapidly, causing a deadly outbreak in parts of the continent that has afflicted people for decades.
Mpox is a viral infection that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. The virus has long affected Africa, but a new strain, clade Ib, has recently heightened global concerns. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a global health emergency on August 14 after cases started to spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to nearby countries.
Despite this, Africa has faced significant delays in receiving vaccines, while over 70 countries outside the continent have had access for months. This slow response has started debates over global health inequalities, particularly in vaccine distribution. According to health officials and scientists, the necessary steps to ensure vaccine availability in Africa could have started much earlier.
The delays are partly caused due to bureaucratic obstacles. The WHO only began the formal process of making vaccines available to low-income countries this month, even though it could have started years ago. In the meantime, wealthier nations have provided the vaccines that Africa is finally beginning to receive. The US donated the first 10,000 vaccines arriving in Africa next week, rather than the UN. These Bavarian Nordic vaccines cost around $100 per dose, making them unaffordable for many African countries. Another vaccine, produced by Japan’s KM Biologics, remains unaffordable as well.
Helen Rees, a member of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Mpox emergency committee said, ‘It’s outrageous that Africa is once again left behind after struggling during the COVID pandemic’.
In 2022, a different Mpox strain spread outside Africa and vaccines were distributed rapidly in over 70 high- and middle-income countries. More than 1.2 million people in the US have since received vaccines. However, in Africa, no vaccines have been available outside clinical trials, largely due to delays in WHO approval.
Countries like the DRC have been hit hardest by the outbreak. Since January, the DRC has reported over 27,000 suspected cases and 1,100 deaths, mostly among children. However, the first vaccines are being shipped to Nigeria, which has reported 786 cases this year.
Delays in vaccine distribution majorly arise due to administrative issues in African countries, which have struggled to request vaccines from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Congo, for instance, only approved the two main vaccines in June and has yet to request vaccine supplies officially. In addition, challenges such as the need to store the vaccines at -20°C, further complicate the process.
Children are particularly vulnerable to Mpox. In eastern Congo, seven-year-old Sagesse Hakizimana is one of more than 100 children infected by the virus. His mother, Elisabeth Furaha, said, “We need a vaccine for this disease. It weakens our children.”
As the vaccines begin to arrive, there remain concerns about how to best deploy them. Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine is approved only for adults, while KM Biologics’ vaccine, which can be given to children, is more complicated to administer. Public health experts are still debating which groups should be prioritised for vaccination.
Source: Healthworld