The lack of vaccines and treatments for mpox in African countries confronting outbreaks of the disease is a stark reminder of how ill-prepared the world is for another pandemic, former co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response Helen Clark said on Tuesday.
SA, which has reported seven mpox cases since May, is in talks to secure donations from Western nations with excess stock but has yet to receive supplies. Seven African countries have reported mpox this year, with a total of 8,479 cases and 401 deaths by June 14. The vast majority of these cases (97%) are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If there were a new pandemic threat today ... the world would likely be overwhelmed again,” said Clark, who was previously prime minister of New Zealand.
She made her remarks at the virtual launch of a new report from the panel’s co-chairs, which warns that the world’s political leaders are not paying enough attention to pandemic threats and have failed to devise new ways to finance the globe’s response to pandemics and manage equitable access to tests and vaccines.
The panel was set up during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic and made recommendations to the World Health Assembly in May 2021 about how to prepare and respond to future pandemics. But three years on, political leaders are no longer seized with the threat of the next global health crisis, and low- and middle-income countries remain dangerously dependent on charity, said the report.
“If we don’t take these issues seriously we are gambling with our futures. We need leaders to step up now,” said Clark.
World Health Organisation (WHO) member states have for the past two years been trying to agree on a plan to increase collaboration before and during pandemics, but talks have been repeatedly extended as countries fail to reach consensus on key issues such as vaccine sharing.
The WHO had hoped for an agreement to be concluded during the World Health Assembly in early June, but is now aiming for 2025.
Member states did, however, agree to update the International Health Regulations, which are legally binding rules that have been adjusted to try to provide a better global response to future pandemics.
Afrigen CEO Petro Terblanche said she feared the inequalities between rich and poor countries had widened since the Covid-19 pandemic.
“If we had a pandemic today, the Global North will move at great speed and be better prepared than three years before, but I fear that for the Global South ... we are not there yet,” she said.
Africa’s lack of vaccine manufacturing capacity had devastating consequences in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic when shots were in short supply, as US, European and Asian countries with manufacturing capacity prioritised their own citizens and left African nations last in line.
More funding was needed to build the research, manufacturing and distribution capacity of low- and middle-income countries to respond effectively to future pandemics, said Terblanche.
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