Infectious diseases | Monkeypox vaccinations are progressing too slowly, and according to an expert, the world is repeating the same mistake as in the corona pandemic

Monkey pox is currently spreading rapidly in addition to Africa, for example in the United States and Spain. A total of 25,800 cases of infection have been recorded worldwide since last spring.

There is already a way to combat the contagious disease. Health authorities have stated that the smallpox vaccine also protects against monkeypox.

The problem is that smallpox vaccinations have not been actively administered for decades. The World Health Organization WHO declared in 1980 that smallpox had been eradicated from the world with the help of vaccinations.

Officially there is currently only one approved monkeypox vaccine: the vaccine manufactured by the Danish company Bavarian Nordic, known in Europe as Imvanex and in the United States as Jynneos.

At the end of July, the EU approved the use of a vaccine to combat monkeypox. Administration of vaccines has started, for example, in Spain and France.

Still, not enough vaccines have been delivered to these countries. Health authorities fear that the vaccinations will start too slowly in order to fight the epidemic effectively. The possible crisis has recently been written about by, among other things The Washington Post and news agency AP.

“Health experts warn that a lack of vaccine doses could threaten the country’s ability to control the spread of the virus and prevent it from becoming a permanent health risk,” the Washington Post wrote at the end of July.

Read more: Possible first monkeypox-related deaths reported in Europe: Two infected people die in Spain

Bavarian Nordic has announced that it can produce 30 million vaccine doses per year. Two doses of the vaccine should be given for complete protection, but already in July experts began to consider the possibilitythat due to the insufficient number of vaccines, only one dose would be given, at least initially.

So far, the aim is not to vaccinate the entire population against the disease, but only those at the highest risk of infection.

THL says, that the infection can be acquired especially through direct contact with the skin changes of a sick person and through droplets in long-lasting close face-to-face contact. Infection is also possible through, for example, bedding and bodily secretions.

Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease, but still up to 98 percent of cases of monkeypox outside of Africa have so far been recorded in men who have sex with men. That’s why even when giving vaccinations, they have been defined primarily as those in need of vaccination.

The aim is that the spread of the disease among the entire population is prevented if the infections are brought under control in the population group where most of the infections have been detected so far.

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“If we are not safe, the rest of the world is not safe either.”

The vaccines are needed for this, and there are big problems in getting the necessary amount both in the United States and in Europe.

According to current estimates, the United States will receive a maximum of two million vaccine doses by the end of the year, even if the country needs more than three million doses. In Europe, only small doses of vaccines have been given, but the countries have ordered a lot more vaccines and hope to receive them in the coming months.

At the same time, Western countries are repeating the same mistake they made during the coronavirus pandemic. This is what an assistant professor of medicine at Emory University says in an AP interview Titanji of Boghuma Kabines.

When the countries hoarding vaccines the fastest refuse to distribute part of the vaccines to Africa, for example, it will lead to a continuous increase in cases of monkeypox in Africa, where there are already significantly more deaths from the disease than elsewhere.

“If we are not safe, the rest of the world is not safe either”, Acting Director of the African Center for Disease Prevention and Control Ahmed Ogwell Ouma said at a press conference at the end of July.