Quotes
We do need the manufacturers to really scale up so that we've got access to many, many more vaccines,
WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris told reporters Travel restrictions and border closures don't work and should be avoided."
If we can vaccinate individuals at risk they will be protected from infection and this will help control the epidemic – so both benefit the person vaccinated and the broader population,
Some people become much more unwell and they may develop a more severe illness with hundreds of lesions all over the body,
It’s a disease. Whether you get the severe form – then it leads to death – or you just recover [in] two to four weeks. Everything goes back to normal,
There is no vaccine in Africa. Whatever is left of that vaccine is stockpiled in the West as part of their own emergency preparedness. But we have an ongoing emergency here,
A lot of the transmission is in densely populated areas with many children, and children are probably more prone to running around and coming into direct skin-to-skin contact with others – so that then causes transmission. Whereas adults have less direct contact with others,
For example, people with untreated HIV [a sexually transmitted illness] or a weak immune system are at still higher risk of severe disease. Children also seem to be at higher risk of severe disease,
Beyond the fact that all infections obviously transiently cause responses in the immune system, we don’t believe there are long-term impacts on the immune system from mpox,
There is, however, vaccination, which is effective at reducing risk. The priority needs to be getting an adequate supply of vaccine to those populations most at risk in DRC and surrounding countries,
There are likely to be small numbers of cases exported further afield, as [in] the Swedish case, but the major risk and the focus for action needs to be on central Africa,
We are motivated to advance development for our mpox vaccine with urgency given the global public health emergency,
its CEO Seth Lederman said It is not surprising... that travel between continents has brought this case to Europe,
said Brian Ferguson, an Associate Professor of Immunology at the University of Cambridge The emergence of a new clade of mpox, its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the reporting of cases in several neighboring countries are very worrying. On top of outbreaks of other mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives.”
In announcing the emergency, WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said As a result of the rapid spread of this outbreak in Africa, ECDC has increased the level of risk for the general population in the EU/EEA and travelers to affected areas,
said Pamela Rendi-Wagner, director of the Stockholm-based ECDC Ensuring effective surveillance, laboratory testing, epidemiological investigation and contact tracing capacities will be vital to detecting cases of MPXV clade I on the continent and activating any response,
the agency wrote in its new risk analysis on Friday Due to frequent and close travel links,
European Union member states should issue advice for those visiting or returning from mpox outbreak areas in five Central African states: Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya We have what we need to stop mpox,
said Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of Duke University's Global Health Institute We are actually in a good place to get control of this pandemic, but we have to make the decision to prioritize Africa,
This declaration is not merely a formality. It's a clarion call to action. It's a recognition that we can no longer afford to be reactive; we must be proactive and aggressive in our effort to contain and eliminate this threat."
Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa CDC, said