RESPOND In the case of monkeypox that is increasingly rampant in countries on the African continent, the World Health Organization (WHO) is reportedly preparing to take action.
As reported Reuters, Friday (17/6/2022), unmitigated, the WHO is said to be preparing to procure thousands of monkeypox tests for Africa.
Meanwhile, regarding vaccination steps, WHO Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti said, so far WHO itself has not recommended mass vaccination of monkeypox to be carried out.
“While we certainly do not recommend mass vaccination at this stage, we must ensure that we are ready if needed,” Matshidiso said at a weekly meeting on Thursday, June 16.
Matshidiso emphasized that the African continent must be prepared for this vaccination program, if it is ultimately necessary to vaccinate. Therefore, according to WHO, it is also working to ensure that the African continent has equitable and fair access to vaccines.
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Especially considering the current conditions, with the very limited availability of monkeypox vaccine.
“At this stage the global stock of smallpox vaccine, which offers protection against monkeypox, is very limited,” added Matshidiso.
From the records of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so far Africa since the beginning of 2022 has had around 1,597 suspected cases of monkeypox with 66 of them fatal.
Matshidiso said that currently on the African continent, there were already eight countries that had confirmed cases. Such as Nigeria, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, even Benin and Ghana where the monkeypox virus is usually not found.
For information, next week it is known that the WHO will hold a committee meeting to determine the emergency status of monkeypox, whether the monkeypox outbreak is a public health emergency that is of international concern.
This action, is known to be the highest-level warning issued by the WHO, which so far only applies to the Covid-19 pandemic and polio.
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