Follow-up – WAA
The World Health Organization announced today, Friday, that it has granted the first license to use a vaccine against monkeypox, called “Mpox”, for adults.
“This initial authorization of a monkeypox vaccine is an important step in our fight against the disease, both in the context of the current outbreak in Africa and in the future,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The head of the UN health agency called for “an urgent scale-up in procurement, donations and roll-out to get the vaccine to where it is most needed, alongside other response measures.”
The initial license for the vaccine, which is “produced by Bavarian Nordic, allows donors, such as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and UNICEF, to purchase it, however, supplies are limited as there is only one manufacturer producing it.”
Under the WHO license, “the vaccine can be given to people aged 18 years or older in a two-dose regimen.”
According to the license, “the vaccine is not currently approved for use in persons under 18 years of age, but may be used in infants, children and adolescents in outbreaks where the benefits of vaccination outweigh the potential risks.”
For its part, officials at the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last month: “Nearly 70% of cases in Congo – the country most affected by monkeypox – are in children under the age of 15, who also account for 85% of deaths.”
The Africa Centres for Disease Control confirmed on Thursday that “107 new deaths and 3,160 new cases were recorded in the past week, just one week after its launch, prompting the World Health Organization to launch a continental response plan.”
Monkeypox is a viral disease that causes flu-like symptoms, with skin sores on the face, hands, chest and genitals, and is widely transmitted among homosexual men.
It is worth noting that “the Russian Federal Service for Consumer Rights Protection (Rospotrebnadzor) announced earlier that the Russian Vector Scientific Research Center has a vaccine to prevent monkeypox.”
Alexander Gintsburg, Director General of the Russian Gamaleya Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, announced that “pre-clinical tests of the monkeypox vaccine developed by the center’s experts will take 3-5 months.”