Nairobi — The head of the African Union’s health watchdog said Thursday it was time for the West to show it had learnt from the Covid pandemic and not abandon Africa during the Mpox outbreak.
Mpox was declared an international emergency in August by the World Health Organization (WHO), concerned by a surge in cases of the new Clade 1b strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the epicentre of the outbreak.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has said it is short of a $600-million target to tackle the disease now present in 14 nations on the continent.
However, Africa CDC head Jean Kaseya said he was hopeful the funding goal would be met “because this is time for Western countries to show that they learnt from Covid”.
“We don’t want to come back again tomorrow to say, you again abandoned Africa,” he said during an online briefing on Mpox.
“We want them to understand this lesson to say it’s time for them to rebuild the trust.”
Criticism was levelled at Western nations during the Covid-19 pandemic, with claims they abandoned Africa by hoarding vaccines or by prioritising shipments to richer nations.
.@AfricaCDC, in collaboration with health partners, is developing a real-time dashboard to track #Mpox cases and progress toward the $600 million continental response plan. “This ensures accountability and transparency,” said @AfricaCDC Director General Dr. @JeanKaseya2. pic.twitter.com/uTykC7BbHn
— Africa CDC (@AfricaCDC) September 12, 2024
“As we know, the trust was broken between Western countries and Africa. It’s really time for solidarity,” said Kaseya.
“It is a global issue.”
According to the latest Congolese Public Health Institute figures, there have been nearly 22 000 cases and 716 deaths linked to the virus recorded since January.
Kaseya also warned that the rate of testing remained a “major issue”, saying testing capacity needed to be increased to better track the outbreak.
So far, some 200,000 vaccine doses have been delivered to the DRC by the European Union, along with about 50 000 from the United States.
Several hundred thousand more doses have been pledged by European nations, Kaseya said, in addition to about three million promised by Japan.
He did not provide further details, including on when the vaccines might be delivered.
Mpox is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.
It causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions, and can in some cases be deadly.
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Source: AFP
Picture: X/@WHOSouthAfrica
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