Having ignored the disease for decades, high-income countries must share vaccines and treatments quickly with other nations.
Cases of monkeypox continue to rise. A month ago, when the World Health Organization decided against declaring the global outbreak of the viral disease a public health emergency of international concern , some 3,000 cases had been confirmed in more than 50 countries since the start of May. By 23 July, that number stood at more than 16,000 cases across 75 countries and territories, according to the WHO.
The WHO’s expert advisers met again at the end of last week, and although the majority didn’t support declaring a PHEIC, on 23 July. Now that a declaration has been made, nations must work together to tackle the outbreak and ensure that sufficient resources are provided to low- and middle-income countries , where the disease has historically been most prevalent. Mistakes made over COVID-19 must not be repeated.
For example, no one benefits when there is competition for vaccines during an emergency — a widespread problem in many nations’ COVID-19 responses. Smallpox vaccines are effective against monkeypox, but in LMICs both vaccine supply and diagnostic capacity are patchy. Vaccine donors need to collaborate with researchers and health officials to determine what each country requires to scale up its ability to respond to this infectious disease.
The advisers opposed to declaring a PHEIC argued that the disease is treatable through targeted interventions. At present, the burden of disease is overwhelmingly being felt among men who have sex with men, in Europe and North America, and interventions could focus on vaccination in that community.
Until this year, most cases of monkeypox were seen in people in Central and West Africa. In the current outbreak, all of the known fatalities have been in African countries, where studies have shown that young children, older people and those with low immunity have a higher risk of developing severe disease., and in that time hundreds of people have died from a virulent strain that has a mortality rate of around 10% .
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