The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared monkeypox a “public health emergency of international concern”.
The health organization said “there are now more than 16,000 reported cases from 75 countries and territories and five deaths.” The five documented deaths were in Africa, the only continent without a single monkeypox vaccine. The numbers focus on outbreak cases since May.
Ahmed Oguel is the acting head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Africa CDC. Since the beginning of 2022, he said, more than 2,100 cases of the disease have been reported in Africa, resulting in 75 deaths.
Oguel noted that the African continent of 1.3 billion people is once again lagging behind in vaccine access, as it was during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, “let’s deliver vaccines to the continent.”
Monkeypox has been reported in parts of Africa for many years. But the virus did not spread widely outside the continent. Last May, health organizations began reporting cases of monkeypox in the United States, Europe and many other countries. This started a rush to get vaccines for the disease.
The European Commission said it would buy 160,000 doses of the vaccine. And US health officials said 800,000 doses would be available to doctors across the country after several weeks of delays. The two-shot vaccine is manufactured at Bavarian Nordic’s plant in Denmark.
But Ogwell said the Africa CDC cannot make such statements. He said he hoped to have “good news” in the coming days, but did not know when the photos would be available. Smallpox vaccines that can work against monkeypox are also not available, he said.
Oguel reminded the international health community that if Africa is not safe from disease, “the rest of the world is not safe.”
After seeing the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with rich nations spending money on vaccines and treatments, Oguel said, “Solutions must be global in nature.”
The WHO has said it is setting up a system to share monkeypox vaccines, but not much information has been released. Also, no country has yet agreed to share vaccines with the WHO.
I’m Dan Friedel
Dan Friedl adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on an Associated Press report.
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Words in this story
answer–n. something that is done as a reaction to something else
dose – n. amount of medicine to be taken at one time
access–n. the possibility of getting something, the availability of an item
hurry –v. to move very fast
global -adj. involving the whole world
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