European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides Thursday urged EU member states to mobilize mpox vaccine donations to Africa. Mpox is both an African and global public health emergency. File Photo by Olivier Hoslet/EPA-EFE
Aug. 23 (UPI) — The European Commission’s Health and Food Safety agency is urging EU member states to unite to coordinate mpox vaccine donations to African nations in response to the global health emergency.
In a letter to health ministers of EU states, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides asked the member states to communicate their intentions to “to donate mpox vaccines and therapeutics and the volumes available for donation” before the end of August.
“In the face of the outbreak of mpox on several countries in Africa, we must act together in a coordinated and sustained manner with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and affected countries, in a spirit of global solidarity and cooperation,” she said.
Kyriakides said since declaring mpox a continental health emergency Africa’s CDC is calling on the global community to mobilize 2 million vaccine doses.
“Several member states and third countries have announced their intention to donate doses to affected countries and Africa,” Kyriakides wrote. “European donations will have more immediate impact if they are coordinated and channeled with the tried and true Team Europe approach, as was successfully done during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
She said that the EU’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority has worked with the Bavarian Nordic company to secure and donate 215,000 mpox vaccine doses as a first response.
The doses will be distributed by the Africa CDC, but Kyriakides said many more doses are needed to address the global and continental mpox health emergency.
The World Health Organization declared mpox a global health emergency Aug. 14 and said it was “committed in the days and weeks ahead to coordinate the global response, working closely with each of the affected countries, and leveraging our on-the-ground presence, to prevent transmission, treat those infected, and save lives.”
EU member states are joining the African CDC and WHO’s effort to rally nations to share vaccines, treatments and other critical resources with currently affected countries.
The European CDC Aug.16 released an updated mpox risk assessment and guidance after a case of MPXV clade Ib was reported.
The ECDC said the risk of mpox infection for Europe’s general population is low. But the agency warned that for Europeans traveling to or living in nations most affected by mpox in close contact with affected communities mpox risk is high.