Among the things that the Covid pandemic has changed in the world, one of the most important is that health authorities have clearly perceived – or at least more clearly than before – that an emerging virus can kill 15 million people and turn the planet upside down, and that it is therefore vital to maintain surveillance systems that direct their antennas to the highest risk situations. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (African CDC, colloquially) have correctly fulfilled that function with the new outbreak of mpox that has emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has spread to neighboring countries. And the World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to support this action by declaring an international public health emergency.
We are not facing a pandemic threat like the one we experienced a few years ago. These types of phenomena are usually caused by respiratory viruses such as influenza, bird flu, SARS or Covid, where a passenger who sneezes on the subway can infect half the car. Mpox, previously called monkeypox, or monkeypoxis only transmitted through very close contact with the skin or fluids of an infected person. Although the new mpox variant is more aggressive than the previous ones, which have been known since the middle of the last century, the virus does not have the terrifying capacity to be transmitted through the air. Taking measures to stop its spread is much easier than with a respiratory virus.
But they must be taken, because lives are at stake and because it is never a good idea to let a dangerous virus run wild in human populations, giving it more opportunities to mutate into something worse and better adapted to humans. Dr Tedros, WHO Secretary-General, has explained that the new mpox variant has spread rapidly through the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has been detected for the first time in neighbouring countries. It is obvious that it can spread to even more African countries, and it would not be the first time that it has reached Spain and other Western countries. And Tedros is absolutely right to call for a coordinated international response to stop an outbreak that is in no one’s interest, either inside or outside Africa.
A key point is the vaccines, another lesson we have all learned during the Covid pandemic. This time the vaccines already exist, and countries like Spain have had them in stock since the previous mpox crisis in 2022/2023. Although the virus has undergone some variation, as shown by the increase in its aggressiveness, it is very likely that the vaccines will continue to work against it. But it is not the Western countries, but the African ones, that need these vaccines the most now, and Tedros has been campaigning for days among manufacturers to speed up their production. The declaration of an international emergency will facilitate some procedures, but international collaboration will be needed for the doses to reach the countries that have declared cases.
The African CDC has worked. The WHO has too. Now it is the turn of the Western governments.
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