New cases of the disease every week and now more than a thousand deaths: African health authorities have been fighting Mpox disease for months. Although vaccination campaigns have begun, there appears to be no end to the epidemic in sight. Jean Kaseya,director of the African health authority CDC Africa,repeats every week in his situation reports: “Spox in Africa is not under control.”
For Kaseya and other health experts, the situation has a sort of déjà vu feel. As during the Covid pandemic, the weaknesses of the continent’s health infrastructure are becoming evident: too little laboratory and testing capacity, but above all too little domestic vaccine production. The continent’s health authorities are relying on rich countries to provide vaccines from their stockpiles to protect against the virus.
According to facts from Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization (WHO) Mpox cases in 20 African countries – the first case occurred in Angola last week. Since the beginning of the year, the number of patients has risen to almost 60,000 and this year there have been 1,164 deaths linked to Mpox.
Monkeypox, formerly known as monkeypox, occurs repeatedly in central Africa, transmitted primarily from rodents to humans. The fact that large epidemics never occurred for decades is due, among other things, to the previously widespread smallpox vaccination. It also protects against closely related Mpox viruses. Smallpox has been considered eradicated since 1980, so vaccinations have been suspended.
In mid-august, the Africa CDC and WHO declared the highest alert level due to the Mpox epidemic in Africa and the new, possibly more risky Ib variant. The aim is to encourage authorities around the world to be more vigilant.
However, more than 90% of cases continue to be recorded in Central Africa. 95.5% of last week’s 2,680 new cases also occurred in Congo, Uganda and Burundi.
Delays in vaccination campaigns
By the first half of November, the DRC, Rwanda and Nigeria received a total of 280,000 vaccine doses. But vaccinations began with delays in Congo and Nigeria. Poor infrastructure in large areas,lack of cooling options and electricity bottlenecks make vaccine distribution even more difficult,especially in rural regions.
Furthermore, the vaccine doses delivered so far are ultimately just a drop in the ocean: when the alert was announced, Kaseya had already spoken of at least ten million vaccine doses that would be needed on the continent to stop the epidemic.
However, since not all countries record cases of childhood disease separately, data does not exist for all affected countries.
But existing Mpox vaccines have not yet been approved for children. Now there is hope here,said Ngashi Ngongo,the Africa CDC’s Mpox lead,in the latest assessment on Thursday. Japan has promised the Democratic Republic of Congo three million doses of a vaccine also suitable for children aged one year and older. However, the approval process in the african contry is still pending.
distancing and hygiene measures,already attempted to minimize infections during the corona pandemic,can only have a limited affect,especially in heavily affected eastern Congo. A total of around seven million people live here in extremely cramped conditions in refugee camps after fleeing armed fighting in the conflict-ravaged region.
“You can’t even think about isolating all suspected cases because the population is enormous and there are neither spaces nor structures to host them,” said Agnese Commelli, a doctor with the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders in Goma, eastern Congo. . German Press Agency.
Sick people wait and see
Health authorities already have difficulty registering cases. Only a small portion of suspected cases could be officially confirmed. There are no rapid tests, samples must be sent to laboratories and patients, and the medical staff treating them only have days or weeks to know whether the infectious disease has been confirmed.
Many people turn to health services only when the disease is in an advanced stage, explains commelli. “They don’t walk four kilometers or more to the nearest health center just because they have a fever.They come when they feel worse and the rash has already progressed.” The doctor also found that the fear of Mpox infection was not particularly pronounced: “It’s not Ebola.”
Relatives and neighbors often become infected when they go to the doctor, especially if people live close together. In addition to the characteristic rash, typical symptoms include chills, fever and headache, muscle aches and back pain. Fatal cases occur mainly in regions with limited access to medical care. They often affect children, especially those suffering from malnutrition, and people with weakened immune systems.
After suffering from Mpox disease, you develop an immunity against reinfection that lasts for years. People who are already ill thus initially do not need vaccination.“The more an epidemic spreads, the less useful vaccines will be,” says Commelli.
The arduous fight against the spread of the virus is already having consequences on other areas of the continent’s healthcare system, as Commelli explains: The prevention and treatment of other diseases such as malaria and cholera is affected by the fact that a large part of the population has already low are occupied by the Mpox - the fight is limited.
Eva krafczyk, dpa
