Portugal is available to bring about 2,000 doses of mpox vaccine to Africa – Surge Radio

The Ministry of Health announced this Thursday that it is available to provide “between 10% and 15%” of the vaccine reserve a wolf (previously known as monkeypox). This percentage of vaccinations corresponds to the value of between 1,500 and 2,250 doses of vaccines against the virus, which caused a series of outbreaks on the African continent and scared the rest of the world.

Portugal currently has 15,000 doses of vaccines in the national reserve, according to information provided by the General Directorate of Health (DGS) to PÚBLICO last Wednesday.

Portugal is the fifth European country to respond to the European Commission’s request that member states contribute part of their stock to help African countries fight the current outbreaks, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which accounts for more than 90% of cases and has no access to vaccines existence In addition to Portugal, they have already shown their availability to send part of their reserve to Spain (which provides 500 thousand doses), Belgium (215 thousand), France and Germany ( both with 100 miles). In addition to those, the European Commission will also provide 215 thousand doses, previously ordered from the Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic – responsible for the manufacture of the vaccine Imvanex (or Jynneos, in the United States).

This is one of two vaccines approved in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to fight the disease, either to prevent it or to get the vaccine from contacts of confirmed cases before symptoms appear. The other approved vaccine is LC16, from the company KM Biologics, which has the advantage of being also suitable for children, who make up the majority of those infected in this country in Central Africa.

Spanish Minister of Health, Monica Garciaasked all countries to donate at least 20% of their national reserve (in the case of Spain, this was equivalent to 500,000 vaccine doses). In Portugal, this would mean a slight increase to 3,000 doses.

No current supply a wolffocusing on Africa, the identified cases are, above all, of the Ia variant, whose mortality and transmission are historically higher than the IIb variant, which caused the ar-a- global outbreak in 2022. Since the beginning of the year, only the Democratic Republic of the Congo had more than 15 thousand suspected cases a wolf. Part of these cases belong to another new variant, Ib, about which little is known yet, but which has spread to neighboring countries.

Due to the circulation of multiple variants, including a new one that is little known, an international public health emergency was declared by the World Health Organization on August 14. Between July 2022 and May 2023, this statute was in effect for a wolf – which has now returned to center stage among global public health concerns.