The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about reports of cases of monkeypox in some African countries that were previously unaffected by the disease.
“The geographic spread of monkeypox in parts of Africa where no cases have yet been detected is a worrying sign,” warned WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti, who underlined the need to support “country efforts to strengthen surveillance and laboratory diagnosis, which are the cornerstones of the fight against the disease”.
Moeti made the alert during a virtual press conference on Thursday in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo. According to her, as of June 28, the continent has reported 1,821 cases of the virus in 13 countries, including 109 laboratory confirmed cases in nine countries. The number of confirmed cases in Africa represents 2% of the more than 4,500 confirmed cases worldwide.
The WHO does not want the risk of vaccine inequity recorded in the face of Covid-19 to be repeated for monkeypox. “What happened in the early days of the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, when Africa sat on the sidelines while other countries shared the limited number of vaccines available, must not happen again. Moeti said.
She went on to say that “the current global attention on monkeypox should serve as a catalyst to defeat this disease in Africa once and for all. For this, we know that vaccines are an essential tool.”
For the time being, taking into account the limited number of vaccines and antivirals, the WHO does not recommend mass vaccination against monkeypox, but rather targeted vaccination of people exposed or at high risk.
Meanwhile, the UN body says it is working to secure 60,000 tests for Africa, including around 2,000 tests and reagents to be shipped to high-risk countries and 1,000 tests and reagents to be shipped to lower-risk countries. monkeypox.