NAIROBI (AP) — Africa does not have a single dose of monkeypox vaccine, even though it is the only continent where deaths from the disease have been recorded, the regional health agency announced Thursday.
“We should bring vaccines to the continent,” said the acting director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ahmed Ogwell.
In a press briefing, he described a situation where Africa’s 1.3 billion people are once again left behind in terms of vaccine availability, as was the case with COVID-19.
Less than a week ago, the World Health Organization declared a global emergency due to monkeypox.
To date, more than 20,000 cases have been reported in 77 countries, including more than 2,100 in 11 countries in Africa, where 75 people have died of the disease, Ogwell said.
While monkeypox had been known in parts of central and western Africa for decades, there was no sign of it leaving the continent until May this year, when large numbers of cases were detected in Europe, North America and other regions.
Now a global race for vaccines has begun. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, has finalized the purchase of 160,000 doses. On Wednesday, US health regulators said the country would soon have 800,000 doses available, after what they called weeks of delays.
Such delays are even more pronounced in Africa, where the disease has been endemic in certain countries for decades. Ogwell said that his agency has been in contact with European entities to obtain the vaccines, and while he assured that there will be “good news” in the coming days, he emphasized that “we cannot give you a timetable.”
In Africa there are not even vaccines against general smallpox, Ogwell said.
“Solutions have to be global in nature,” Ogwell said, warning the international community. “If we are not safe, nobody is safe.”
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