Friday, November 1, 2024

African Union Health Chief Says Mpox Is "Not Under Control" And New Case Rates On The Continent Are "Still Rising"...


This is particularly discouraging news.

It is discouraging, primarily because this is simply a resource allocation problem.

That is, there is a working vaccine -- there are experimental therapies; and there are test kits, all specifically for Mpox. But all three categories of these are in very short supply inside DRC and the other 18 African nations now afflicted. Globally, we need to be spending much more to arrest this outbreak. Fatality rates approach 20% among the afflicted (if untreated), and over 65% of those afflicted are. . . children. Here's Al Jezeera's latest -- on it all:

. . .The African Union’s health watchdog has warned that the mpox outbreak was still not under control and appealed for resources to avoid a “more severe” pandemic than COVID-19.

“The situation is not yet under control, we are still on the upward trend generally,” Ngashi Ngongo from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) told a briefing on Thursday.

“What we need is the continuous political and financial mobilisation,” Ngongo said, adding that this was a necessary measure to stop mpox from being another pandemic “which would be much more severe than COVID-19”.

Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact. . . .


When you know better -- you must do better.

नमस्ते

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