“Why Mexico Is In Urgent Need Of Smallpox Vaccine To Combat Monkeypox Outbreak: Activists Express Concerns”

CDMX.- Despite the fact that 50 percent of the deaths caused by monkeypox are concentrated in the Valley of Mexico, the vaccine to prevent these cases has not been acquired by the authorities.

And a year after the first cases were reported, hope that the vaccine will arrive is beginning to be lost.

“We have been demanding a smallpox vaccine from the Government and the Ministry of Health for a year, we have already lost hope that they will listen to us, but we continue in the fight to have medicine for those living with HIV and to avoid more deaths,” said the activist. Alaín Pinzón, representative of the organization VIHve Libre.

According to figures that were released at a meeting between activists and specialists in the health sector, of the 23 deaths that have been registered from smallpox in the country, 10 were reported in Mexico City and one in Edomex.

“We are quite bad on the issue of smallpox. We are the second country in Latin America with the highest mortality in monkeypox,” claimed Pinzón.

Smallpox has been more aggressive with people living with HIV, indicate data from the National Center for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control. 95 percent of deaths occurred in HIV-positive patients.