The health agency said “there are now more than 16,000 reported cases from 75 countries and territories and five deaths.” The five recorded deaths are in Africa, the only continent without a single monkeypox vaccine. The numbers focus on outbreaks since May. Ahmed Ogwell is the deputy head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Africa CDC. Since early 2022, he said, more than 2,100 cases of the disease have been reported in Africa, resulting in 75 deaths. Ogwell noted that the African continent of 1.3 billion people is again lagging behind in access to vaccines as it was at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, “let’s vaccinate the continent.” Monkey pox 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 smallpox in the US, Europe and many other countries. This started a rush to get vaccines for the disease. The European Commission has announced that it will buy 160,000 doses of the vaccine. And health officials in the US said 800,000 doses would be available to doctors across the country after several weeks of delays. The two-shot vaccine is manufactured at the Bavarian Nordic plant in Denmark. But Ogwell said the Africa CDC cannot make similar statements. He said he hoped to have “good news” in the next few days, but did not know when the footage would be available. He said there are no smallpox vaccines available that can work against smallpox. Ogwell reminded the international health community that if Africa is not safe from disease, “the rest of the world is not safe.” After seeing the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with wealthy nations spending money on vaccines and treatments, Ogwell said: “Solutions must be global.” The WHO has said it is setting up a monkeypox vaccine sharing system, but not much information has been released. Furthermore, no country has yet agreed to share vaccines with the WHO. I’m Dan Friedell Dan Friedell adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on an Associated Press report.
Words in this story
answer–n. something done in reaction to something else dose –h. amount of medicine to be taken at the same time access–n. the opportunity to get something, the availability of an item haste –v. to move very quickly catholic – adj. which concerns the whole world
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