WHO faces criticism over two-year delay in Mpox vaccine access for Africa. Calls for Tedros’ resignation grow

Medical News: The World Health Organization (WHO) is under fire for its role in delaying the distribution of Mpox vaccines to Africa, despite the worsening crisis on the continent. Activist groups, medical professionals, and public health officials are now demanding the resignation of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, citing the organization’s mishandling of the situation and its failure to protect vulnerable populations in Africa.


WHO faces criticism over two-year delay in Mpox vaccine access for Africa.
Image Credit: AFP/Getty
 
A Crisis Unfolding: The Delayed Response to Mpox
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has been a persistent threat in Africa for decades. The virus causes flu-like symptoms, pus-filled lesions, and can be deadly, particularly in regions with limited healthcare access. In 2022, a new variant of Mpox, clade Ib, emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), spreading rapidly to neighboring countries and triggering a global health emergency.
 
Despite the escalating crisis, it wasn’t until recently that Africa began receiving Mpox vaccines, a stark contrast to other parts of the world where vaccines have been available for months. The WHO officially declared Mpox a global health emergency on August 14, 2023, but by then, the virus had already caused significant harm, particularly in the DRC, where over 27,000 suspected cases and 1,100 deaths have been reported since January 2023.
 
The Role of WHO in the Delays
The WHO’s sluggish response to the Mpox outbreak in Africa has drawn sharp criticism. According to reports, the organization only started the process of giving African countries access to vaccines this month, despite knowing about the worsening situation for nearly two years. This delay has forced African governments and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to rely on donations from wealthier nations, a cumbersome and unreliable process that has left many African countries without the vaccines they desperately need.
 
Helen Rees, a member of the Africa CDC’s Mpox emergency committee and executive director of the Wits RHI Research Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa, called the situation “outrageous.” She told mainstream media and Medical News journalists that Africa faced similar challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the continent struggled to access vaccines while other regions received them quickly. The WHO’s slow approval process for the Mpox vaccine has exacerbated these inequities, leaving millions of Africans vulnerable to the virus.
 
The African CDC will be giving an update on the Monkeypox crisis, the vaccine situation and issues about drugs and treatments available etc to all media and journalists tomorrow. For details:
m/media-advisory-special-press-briefing-on-the-mpox-outbreak-and-other-health-emergencies-in-africa-3/">https://africacdc.org/news-item/media-advisory-special-press-briefing-on-the-mpox-outbreak-and-other-health-emergencies-in-africa-3/
 
The Impact on Africa
The first batch of Mpox vaccines, totalling 10,000 doses donated by the United States, is finally set to arrive in Africa this week. However, this is just a fraction of the 10 million doses that the Africa CDC estimates are needed to control the outbreak. The vaccines will initially go to Nigeria, where 786 suspected cases have been reported this year, although the country has yet to see any deaths.
 
Meanwhile, the situation in the DRC remains dire. The country’s health system, already strained by conflict and other disease outbreaks, has struggled to respond effectively to the Mpox crisis. Although Congo’s government has begun talks to receive vaccine donations, logistical challenges, such as the need to store vaccines at -20°C, have further complicated efforts. In eastern Congo, where conflict has displaced around 750,000 people, Mpox is spreading rapidly, particularly among children living in crowded refugee camps.
 
One such child, seven-year-old Sagesse Hakizimana, contracted Mpox while living in a camp near Goma. His mother, Elisabeth Furaha, described the heartbreak of fleeing a war only to see her child suffer from a preventable disease. “We need a vaccine for this disease. It’s a bad disease that weakens our children,” she said, as she applied ointment to her son’s rash.
 
WHO’s Lame Defense and the Way Forward
In response to the growing criticism, the WHO has defended its actions, stating that it lacked sufficient data to approve the Mpox vaccine earlier. The organization claims that it has been working with manufacturers since the previous Mpox emergency in 2022 to gather the necessary data for vaccine approval. However, this explanation has done little to quell the outrage from public health officials and African governments who argue that the WHO should have prioritized the vaccine approval process much sooner.
 
The WHO’s role in approving medical products has been both a blessing and a curse for low-income countries. While the organization’s approval is necessary to ensure the safety and efficacy of vaccines, its slow and complex procedures have often delayed access to life-saving treatments. The Mpox crisis in Africa is just the latest example of how these delays can have devastating consequences.
 
To address the crisis, the WHO has promised to accelerate the approval process for Mpox vaccines and has urged countries to donate shots until the process is finalized in September. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has also announced that it will begin negotiations to purchase and distribute vaccines to African countries once WHO approval is secured. However, these efforts may come too late for many African communities already ravaged by the virus.
 
Calls for Change
The Mpox crisis has highlighted the deep inequities in global health care and the urgent need for reform within international agencies like the WHO. Some global health experts argue that the WHO and other organizations should have acted sooner to improve access to Mpox vaccines, as well as diagnostics and treatments. Ayoade Alakija, co-chair of a global health partnership focused on Mpox, emphasized that the world needs to prioritize diseases that primarily affect marginalized populations, rather than waiting until they become global threats.
 
As the Mpox outbreak continues to spread, the call for Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to resign as WHO Director-General grows louder. Critics argue that his leadership has failed to protect the most vulnerable populations and that a change is needed to ensure that global health emergencies are handled more effectively in the future.
 
For more on WHO’s incompetence in handling global health pandemics, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.
 
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