Failure Dealing with Mpox Outbreak in Africa Poses Worldwide Risk

By Al Mayadeen English

18 Aug 2024 13:38

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an international public health emergency this week amid rising Mpox cases detected outside Africa.

Health leaders say that failure to show solidarity with African countries amid the rapid rise of mpox cases poses a worldwide risk for future pandemics. 

“The consequences of failing to respond robustly to these declarations could be severe, potentially leading to the increased spread of new and more dangerous variants. The risk of a failure to act now is not just a risk to Africa, but to the rest of the world," Associate Fellow at Chatham House's global health program, Dr. Ebere Okereke, said.

These declarations “provide an opportunity to test the global response to health emergencies in the post-COVID-19 era, to show that lessons of equity have been learned," she added.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, relations were damaged between rich and poor countries due to resources such as vaccines, tests, and PPE being prioritized for the wealthier nations, which took much longer to reach developing countries.

'A future pandemic treaty'

The World Health Assembly's negotiations in Geneva failed to meet the deadline for developing a planned pandemic agreement, which aims to establish global protocols and responses to major disease outbreaks. 

The problem of equity has posed a significant obstacle to ensuring developing countries receive access to medications and treatments in exchange for their contribution to obtaining information on pathogens spreading in their regions.

Okereke said that the international community's response to the declarations will serve as “a litmus test for the potential effectiveness of a future pandemic treaty."

"Mpox has been endemic in a handful of African countries for years. Yet despite having the medicines to treat it, no serious action was taken until the outbreak posed a threat to the west," Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said.

“We saw this same inequity play out during the Covid pandemic, where lives lost in the Global South were shamefully treated as collateral damage in pursuit of more and more pharmaceutical profiteering. It is inevitable, then, that the Global South’s trust in the west has plummeted," he added.

Dearden urged wealthy countries such as the UK to "stand up to big pharma by integrating measures in the pandemic treaty negotiations “that would stop this deep inequity playing out time and time again."

18,700+ mpox cases detected in Africa since January: Health agency

A total of 18,737 suspected or confirmed mpox cases were reported in Africa since the beginning of 2023, with 1,200 cases detected this week alone, the African Union health agency said on Saturday.

The data are composed of the virus' three strains, especially the recent more fatal and transmissible Clade 1b, which led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare an international health emergency on Wednesday. This is the “highest level of alarm” under international health law.

12 African Union member states have reported a combined total of 3,101 confirmed cases and 15,636 suspected cases with 541 deaths, comprising a 2.89% fatality rate, the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement.