Wednesday, September 18, 2024

The Global Vaccine Alliance, GAVI -- Is Shipping ~500,000 Mpox Vaccine Jabs, To African Nations Gripped With Clade Ib...


The US could clearly afford to be doing more. But this is absolutely good news. Good news, for the children of DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda. Still, about 20 deliveries of this scale are yet needed to meet demand, and save lives.

The UK Guardian has it all, and as we mentioned yesterday, public health authorities in Britain will begin vaccinating at risk populations, locally in the coming weeks. Here's the morning's story:

. . .A batch of 500,000 mpox vaccines has been bought by the vaccine alliance Gavi, for delivery this year to virus-affected countries in Africa, where until now doses have been scarce.

It is estimated that 10 million vaccines are needed to meet demand, but the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which accounts for most cases, only received 100,000 vaccines earlier this month despite having had more than 700 deaths this year and 22,000 cases of the new Clade 1b strain. Neighbouring countries Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya have each reported a handful of cases.

“We are committed to working with affected governments and our partners to turn these vaccines into vaccinations as quickly and effectively as possible and, over time, to build a global vaccine stockpile if sufficient funding is secured for Gavi’s work through 2030,” said Gavi’s head, Dr Sania Nishtar. . . .

Reuters reported this month that rich countries such as Japan, the US and Canada have millions of doses of mpox vaccines stockpiled and only a small proportion of them have been pledged to help stop the outbreak in Africa. . . .

Manufacturer Bavarian Nordic praised the deal, saying it would significantly increase the number of vaccines available in Africa. Gavi said it will now work to secure funding to build a stockpile of vaccines. . . .


Now you know. And this may be my last entry. . . for about ten days. . . keep it spinning in good karma, y'all. . . .

नमस्ते

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