Africa, Continent with Monkeypox Deaths, Has No Vaccine
2022-08-01
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1The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared monkeypox a "public health emergency of international concern."
2The health organization said, "there are now more than 16 thousand reported cases from 75 countries and territories and five deaths."
3The five documented deaths are in Africa, the one continent without a single shot of vaccine against monkeypox.
4The numbers center on cases of the outbreak since May.
5Ahmed Ogwell is the acting head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or Africa CDC.
6Since the start of 2022, he said, more than 2,100 cases of the disease have been reported in Africa, resulting in 75 deaths.
7Ogwell noted that the African continent of 1.3 billion people is again being left behind in access to vaccines as it was during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
8He said, "let us get vaccines onto the continent."
9Monkeypox has been reported in parts of Africa for many years.
10But the virus did not spread widely outside the continent.
11Last May, health organizations began reporting cases of monkeypox in the U.S., Europe and many other countries.
12That started a rush to get vaccines for the disease.
13The European Commission said it will purchase 160,000 doses of the vaccine.
14And health officials in the U.S. said 800,000 doses will be available to doctors around the country after a few weeks of delays.
15The two-shot vaccine is manufactured at Bavarian Nordic's plant in Denmark.
16But Ogwell said the Africa CDC cannot make similar statements.
17He said he hopes to have "good news" in the coming days but did not know when the shots would be available.
18He said smallpox vaccines, which can work against monkeypox, are not available, either.
19Ogwell reminded the international health community that unless Africa is safe from disease, "the rest of the world is not safe."
20After seeing the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with wealthy nations spending money for vaccines and treatments, Ogwell said: "the solutions need to be global in nature."
21The WHO said it is creating a vaccine-sharing system for monkeypox,
22but not much information has come out.
23 In addition, no countries have agreed yet to share vaccines with the WHO.
24I'm Dan Friedell
1The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared monkeypox a "public health emergency of international concern." 2The health organization said, "there are now more than 16 thousand reported cases from 75 countries and territories and five deaths." The five documented deaths are in Africa, the one continent without a single shot of vaccine against monkeypox. The numbers center on cases of the outbreak since May. 3Ahmed Ogwell is the acting head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or Africa CDC. Since the start of 2022, he said, more than 2,100 cases of the disease have been reported in Africa, resulting in 75 deaths. 4Ogwell noted that the African continent of 1.3 billion people is again being left behind in access to vaccines as it was during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, "let us get vaccines onto the continent." 5Monkeypox has been reported in parts of Africa for many years. But the virus did not spread widely outside the continent. Last May, health organizations began reporting cases of monkeypox in the U.S., Europe and many other countries. That started a rush to get vaccines for the disease. 6The European Commission said it will purchase 160,000 doses of the vaccine. And health officials in the U.S. said 800,000 doses will be available to doctors around the country after a few weeks of delays. The two-shot vaccine is manufactured at Bavarian Nordic's plant in Denmark. 7But Ogwell said the Africa CDC cannot make similar statements. He said he hopes to have "good news" in the coming days but did not know when the shots would be available. He said smallpox vaccines, which can work against monkeypox, are not available, either. 8Ogwell reminded the international health community that unless Africa is safe from disease, "the rest of the world is not safe." 9After seeing the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with wealthy nations spending money for vaccines and treatments, Ogwell said: "the solutions need to be global in nature." 10The WHO said it is creating a vaccine-sharing system for monkeypox, but not much information has come out. In addition, no countries have agreed yet to share vaccines with the WHO. 11I'm Dan Friedell 12Dan Friedell adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on a report by the Associated Press. 13________________________________________________________________________ 14Words in This Story 15response-n. something that is done as a reaction to something else 16dose -n. an amount of medicine to be taken at one time 17access-n. the chance to get something, the availability of an item 18rush -v. to move very fast 19global -adj. involving the entire world 20________________________________________________________________________ 21What do you think of Africa's access to vaccines? We want to hear from you. 22We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: 23Write your comment in the box. 24Under the box, you can see four images for social media accounts. They are for Disqus, Facebook, Twitter and Google. 25Click on one image and a box appears. Enter the login for your social media account. Or you may create one on the Disqus system. It is the blue circle with "D" on it. It is free. 26Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Our comment policy is here.