Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Aug 9, 2024 21:05:09 GMT
Africa poised to declare continentwide emergency alarm for mpox outbreak - Published Aug 8, 2024
Rollout of vaccines will likely be a challenge as sixteen countries fight active outbreaks
In what would be an unprecedented move, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) says the organization will “most likely” next week declare a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS) because of the rapid spread of mpox across 16 African countries. “What is critical to know is that in the past 10 days we have six new countries affected,” said Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya, who spoke at a media briefing today.
Some of the most recent spread of the sometimes-fatal viral illness has come from an ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)—the hardest hit country—which for the first time has seen sexual transmission as a major driver of the disease. The virus responsible for mpox is also spreading rapidly to children, who make up 60% of the cases in the DRC. “This a major alarm for the world,” Kaseya said, adding that Africa CDC is also working to increase the region’s supply of mpox vaccine, which has yet to be used in any country on the continent.
A PHECS declaration is a new option the Africa CDC created last year and is meant to improve the continent’s response to growing health threats. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus yesterday announced he was convening an emergency committee to help him decide whether to declare a similar global alarm, known as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), which was done for an mpox outbreak that began in Europe in May 2022. That PHEIC ended in May 2023.
If Africa CDC’s member states agree to a PHECS, Kaseya says it would complement any worldwide declaration. “It will not contradict what WHO will do at a global level,” he said. A PHECS, he suggested, will encourage more African countries to contribute funding to their collective efforts and will also “obligate our member states to notify Africa CDC of any health measures implemented in response to the emergency.”
Kaseya said Africa was “abandoned” during the COVID-19 pandemic, alluding to the slow rollout of vaccines there, and the continent does not want to find itself once again dependent on outsiders making decisions. “We are taking appropriate action,” he said. “We are deciding when there is an emergency.”
Many wealthy countries contained their outbreaks in 2022–23 using mpox vaccines including one made by Bavarian Nordic (BN) and another produced by KM Biologics. Although WHO said in April that the U.S. government had pledged to donate 50,000 doses of the BN vaccine to the DRC and another 10,000 to Nigeria, none have arrived. One hold up was that regulators in both the African countries had to authorize use of mpox vaccines, which they had done as of late June. “We are still waiting for promises from several partners for the donation,” epidemiologist Placide Mbala of the DRC’s National Institute of Biomedical Research told ScienceInsider.
Paul Chaplin, CEO of BN, told ScienceInsider that the African countries also need to have strategies to store and distribute vaccine before doses can ship. “We understand this should be put in place later this month by the DRC authorities and then doses should follow,” Chaplin said. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which oversees the donation, said in a statement there are also some “contractual requirements” pending to complete the donation. “The U.S. has provided the funding, and stands ready to move forward with the donation when the remaining steps are complete,” the statement said.
Chaplin noted that BN has donated an additional 15,000 mpox vaccine doses to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which will in turn make them available to affected countries.
The DRC has had more than 14,000 of the 15,132 mpox cases in Africa since the beginning of the year, according to Africa CDC. The case fatality rate has been about 3%, but Kaseya emphasized that rate jumped to 10% in a recent outbreak in South Africa, where many of the newly infected people are also living with HIV. Kaseya urged countries to design their vaccination programs to target the most vulnerable people, including those with HIV, front-line health care workers, and contacts of mpox patients.
Africa CDC estimates the continent needs 10 million doses of mpox vaccine to combat the current outbreak. Ngashi Ngongo, chief of staff at Africa CDC, said the DRC alone could use 3 million of those. Africa CDC is now in negotiation with BN to provide the DRC with 200,000 doses.
In the long run, Kaseya said he hopes BioNTech, which now has a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine for mpox in clinical trials with up to $90 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, will supply many of those doses, especially because it has committed to providing the vaccine at “an affordable price.” BioNTech recently built an mRNA vaccine manufacturing plant in Rwanda, one of the countries that recently had its first cases of mpox.
“We have a limited availability of vaccines and that is a major challenge,” Kaseya said as he called for increasing testing for the mpox virus both in affected countries and at all border crossings. “This is why every day we are calling for local manufacturing. … But we’ll start with the 200,000 doses that will be available very soon.”
Rollout of vaccines will likely be a challenge as sixteen countries fight active outbreaks
In what would be an unprecedented move, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) says the organization will “most likely” next week declare a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS) because of the rapid spread of mpox across 16 African countries. “What is critical to know is that in the past 10 days we have six new countries affected,” said Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya, who spoke at a media briefing today.
Some of the most recent spread of the sometimes-fatal viral illness has come from an ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)—the hardest hit country—which for the first time has seen sexual transmission as a major driver of the disease. The virus responsible for mpox is also spreading rapidly to children, who make up 60% of the cases in the DRC. “This a major alarm for the world,” Kaseya said, adding that Africa CDC is also working to increase the region’s supply of mpox vaccine, which has yet to be used in any country on the continent.
A PHECS declaration is a new option the Africa CDC created last year and is meant to improve the continent’s response to growing health threats. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus yesterday announced he was convening an emergency committee to help him decide whether to declare a similar global alarm, known as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), which was done for an mpox outbreak that began in Europe in May 2022. That PHEIC ended in May 2023.
If Africa CDC’s member states agree to a PHECS, Kaseya says it would complement any worldwide declaration. “It will not contradict what WHO will do at a global level,” he said. A PHECS, he suggested, will encourage more African countries to contribute funding to their collective efforts and will also “obligate our member states to notify Africa CDC of any health measures implemented in response to the emergency.”
Kaseya said Africa was “abandoned” during the COVID-19 pandemic, alluding to the slow rollout of vaccines there, and the continent does not want to find itself once again dependent on outsiders making decisions. “We are taking appropriate action,” he said. “We are deciding when there is an emergency.”
Many wealthy countries contained their outbreaks in 2022–23 using mpox vaccines including one made by Bavarian Nordic (BN) and another produced by KM Biologics. Although WHO said in April that the U.S. government had pledged to donate 50,000 doses of the BN vaccine to the DRC and another 10,000 to Nigeria, none have arrived. One hold up was that regulators in both the African countries had to authorize use of mpox vaccines, which they had done as of late June. “We are still waiting for promises from several partners for the donation,” epidemiologist Placide Mbala of the DRC’s National Institute of Biomedical Research told ScienceInsider.
Paul Chaplin, CEO of BN, told ScienceInsider that the African countries also need to have strategies to store and distribute vaccine before doses can ship. “We understand this should be put in place later this month by the DRC authorities and then doses should follow,” Chaplin said. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which oversees the donation, said in a statement there are also some “contractual requirements” pending to complete the donation. “The U.S. has provided the funding, and stands ready to move forward with the donation when the remaining steps are complete,” the statement said.
Chaplin noted that BN has donated an additional 15,000 mpox vaccine doses to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which will in turn make them available to affected countries.
The DRC has had more than 14,000 of the 15,132 mpox cases in Africa since the beginning of the year, according to Africa CDC. The case fatality rate has been about 3%, but Kaseya emphasized that rate jumped to 10% in a recent outbreak in South Africa, where many of the newly infected people are also living with HIV. Kaseya urged countries to design their vaccination programs to target the most vulnerable people, including those with HIV, front-line health care workers, and contacts of mpox patients.
Africa CDC estimates the continent needs 10 million doses of mpox vaccine to combat the current outbreak. Ngashi Ngongo, chief of staff at Africa CDC, said the DRC alone could use 3 million of those. Africa CDC is now in negotiation with BN to provide the DRC with 200,000 doses.
In the long run, Kaseya said he hopes BioNTech, which now has a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine for mpox in clinical trials with up to $90 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, will supply many of those doses, especially because it has committed to providing the vaccine at “an affordable price.” BioNTech recently built an mRNA vaccine manufacturing plant in Rwanda, one of the countries that recently had its first cases of mpox.
“We have a limited availability of vaccines and that is a major challenge,” Kaseya said as he called for increasing testing for the mpox virus both in affected countries and at all border crossings. “This is why every day we are calling for local manufacturing. … But we’ll start with the 200,000 doses that will be available very soon.”