Headline : The Global System for Distributing Mpox Shots Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It

Read more from the original article on here at time.com.

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From its epicenter in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa’s mpox epidemic is spreading fast, reaching a dozen other African nations so far. The single most important tool for extinguishing the fire is mpox vaccination, which prevents infection and illness. Until yesterday, not a single dose of mpox vaccine was available in Congo. Few shots are available anywhere on the continent.

Congo’s health minister Samuel-Roger Kamba says his country urgently needs 3.5 million doses to stop its outbreak, while 10 million doses are needed for the whole African continent. Without these shots, mpox will continue to spread.

And here’s the kicker. While adults and children in 13 African nations are getting infected, sick, and in some cases dying, several rich nations are sitting on large stockpiles. The U.S., for example, is believed to have stockpiled 7 million doses by mid-2023, while Spain has 2.5 million doses. If a rich country were to become affected, it could immediately launch a vaccination campaign to protect its own citizens—as we saw during the 2022 U.S. mpox outbreak, when the government mounted a robust vaccine campaign, distributing more than one million shots by the end of the year.

It is painful to watch history repeating itself. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we witnessed what Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, called “a global vaccine apartheid”—a profound injustice in which rich countries were the first to get vaccines and boosters, while low- and middle-income nations were left behind. Now we are witnessing mpox vaccine apartheid.

Read more from the original article on here at time.com.

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