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By John Hayward
The Africa Centers for Disease Control (Africa CDC) on Thursday called for President-elect Donald Trump to honor outgoing President Joe Biden’s pledge to supply a million doses of monkeypox (or mpox) vaccine for the outbreak in central and eastern Africa.
“We’ll continue to talk to them and to engage them to fulfill their commitment. If they don’t do that, the mistrust that we have today in Africa will lead to a major issue between the U.S. and the continent,” warned Africa CDC Director John Kaseya.
“I’m available to fly and to meet and discuss with them about what Africa needs in the health area and how we can work together,” he added.
The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) declared a global health emergency for mpox in August. Biden announced at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September that the U.S. would donate one million doses of mpox vaccine, plus at least $500 million in funding.
There have been no mpox cases reported in the United States, but Biden administration officials hinted that an outbreak was possible and complained that Congress had not provided enough funding to handle another pandemic.
“We’re really squeezing right now to be able to respond effectively in this moment. And I think anticipating potentially additional cuts in the future will make it more and more difficult for us to have a robust response to these types of outbreaks,” an unnamed U.S. official told Reuters in September.
Reuters on Thursday speculated some of Africa CDC’s apprehension might flow from the presence of noted vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his team.
Kennedy said in an NPR interview on Wednesday that it was not his intention to “take vaccines away from anybody.”
“The science on vaccine safety particularly has huge deficits, and we’re going to make sure those scientific studies are done and that people can make informed choices about their vaccinations and their children’s vaccinations,” he said.
According to Africa CDC, the heaviest demand for mpox vaccines is currently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Other affected nations include the Central African Republic (CAR), Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda.
Vaccines have been donated by Canada, the European Union, and the Gavi vaccine alliance in addition to the United States.
Some health officials in the DRC believe the epidemic is “stabilizing.” The epidemic peaked at about 400 cases a week in July, and is currently producing 200 to 300 confirmed cases per week. The W.H.O., however, is worried that DRC officials may not be testing enough infected individuals, and warns the epidemic is still spreading in Uganda.
Dr. Salary Rhissa of the nonprofit group ALIMA told the Associated Press (AP) on Wednesday that a vigorous vaccination campaign could wipe out mpox now, and spare Africa from having to deal with new variants of the disease in the future.
“If we miss this opportunity, the likelihood of another significant outbreak increases substantially,” Rhissa said. “We’ve seen how past outbreaks, such as the one in Nigeria in 2017, can lead to larger global events if not effectively contained.”
Dr. Salim Abdool Karim of South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal said the current variant of mpox is not burning out and disappearing, as previous outbreaks have done.
“We’re in new territory with mpox this time,” he said. “We’re never going to solve this until we vaccinate most of our people.”
