2024-08-17
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The World Health Organization urged vaccine manufacturers to increase monkeypox vaccine production on the 16th to control the spread of a more dangerous monkeypox strain. On the same day, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control raised the risk level of monkeypox transmission.
WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris publicly stated on the 16th: "We do need manufacturers to increase production so that we can get more vaccines."
According to AFP, the WHO also asked countries with monkeypox vaccine reserves to donate the vaccines to the affected areas.
Brenwen Nicol, senior official in charge of public health emergencies at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said that most vaccine reserves are in wealthy countries, and the vaccines shipped to Africa so far are "just a drop in the ocean." She said that across the African continent, monkeypox virus testing, treatment methods and vaccines are extremely scarce, "and these shortages have seriously hampered the local ability to prevent and control the epidemic."
Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis. Initial symptoms of monkeypox in humans include fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, and swollen lymph nodes, which can later develop into a widespread rash on the face and body. Most people recover within a few weeks, but some become seriously ill or even die.
On the 14th, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that the monkeypox outbreak constitutes an "international public health emergency." The last time the WHO issued this highest level of alert for the monkeypox outbreak was in July 2022, and the alert was lifted in May 2023.