Monkeypox in Africa.. Lack of resources hinders containment

Reuters reports have shown that the outbreak of monkeypox and the number of deaths in poor African countries could be much greater than what is recorded in official statistics, which is largely due to the limited detection tests for infections in rural areas that are not equipped and the lack of effective medicines.

Monkeypox is a disease that first appeared in Congo 50 years ago, but its infections have increased in West and Central Africa since 2019. The disease did not receive much attention before it spread worldwide this year, recording 77,000 infections.

Statistics from global health authorities showed that infections in Africa during the current outbreak are much less than the number in Europe and the United States, which devoured the limited number of vaccines this year when the disease reached them.

During a six-day trip to the remote Congolese region of Chubu this month, Reuters reporters spotted about 20 monkeypox patients, including two who had died, who were only registered among the infections after the journalists visited. None of them had received vaccines or antiviral drugs.

More than a dozen health workers said a lack of testing facilities and poor transmission lines made tracing the virus nearly impossible.

In response to a question about the weakness in the number of infections, the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged that its data did not cover the full scope of the outbreak.

In Western countries, only about a dozen died of monkeypox this year, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Europe and the United States were able to vaccinate vulnerable communities. Experts said suspected cases are routinely tested, isolated and treated early, which improves survival rates. The number of infections in Europe and the United States stabilized before it began to decline.

But in poor African countries where many people do not have quick access to health facilities, or lack awareness of the risks, more than 130 deaths have been recorded, almost all in Congo, according to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are no monkeypox vaccines available to the public in Africa.

Monkeypox is transmitted through direct contact with skin wounds. For most people, recovery is within weeks. Young children and those with weakened immunity face especially serious complications.

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African countries hope that the World Health Organization’s decision in July to declare monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern will mobilize resources.

Ambrose Talisuna, director of the World Health Organization’s monkeypox team on the continent, said the organization has sent about 40,000 tests to Africa, including 1,500 to Congo.

This month, the Congolese National Institute for Biomedical Research began a clinical trial of the antiviral drug “Ticovirimat” on monkeypox patients.

Health Minister Mbon Djani said that although vaccines are not available for public consumption, there are trials of Imvanix vaccine produced by Bavarian Nordic on health workers in Congo.