GENEVA: Lessons from the Covid pandemic have left the world in a much better position to deal with the current mpox epidemic raging in Africa, says vaccine alliance Gavi. The Covid disaster has brought with it “important learnings that we have drawn on”, Gavi chief Sania Nishtar said. “These findings have translated into concrete tools that are now coming into play” against mpox, Pakistan’s former health minister told AFP in an interview this week. When Covid emerged in early 2020 and quickly began its deadly rampage around the world, it became clear how completely unprepared the international community was to deal with such a global health crisis. He also highlighted the glaring global inequity in vaccines, with rich countries taking most of the doses and leaving Africa far behind. Countries are still trying to agree on a new pandemic treaty that could ensure the world is better prepared next time. But Gavi, which works to expand access to the vaccine in poorer countries, was not waiting for a global agreement to put measures in place to allow it to better respond to emergencies, Nishtar said. In June, the organization established a $500 million First Response Fund to quickly make cash available for vaccines during health crises. “Covid has learned that when there’s an emergency, there’s no money,” said Nishtar, who became the first woman to head Gavi when she took the reins in March. Gavi announced its first use of the fund on Wednesday when it struck a deal with Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic to secure 500,000 doses of its MVA-BN mpox vaccine for use in African countries hit by the epidemic. “We are drawing up to $50 million from the First Response Fund,” Nishtar said, adding that the money will be used partly to cover the cost of benefits and partly for overhead costs including supplies and logistics. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure we can respond as quickly and as quickly as possible,” she said. Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals, but it can also spread from person to person through close physical contact. It causes fever, muscle aches and large ulcer-like skin lesions, and in some cases can be fatal. The World Health Organization declared mpox an international emergency last month, concerned by an increase in cases of the new Clade 1b strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has spread to neighboring countries. From January to the end of August, the DRC recorded nearly 22,000 cases and more than 700 deaths linked to the virus. The African Center for Disease Control and Prevention has called on the continent to obtain 10 million doses. It is said that only 3.6 million vaccines have been secured for Africa so far. Last week, the World Health Organization gave the nod to the MVA-BN injection, which for the first time prequalified an mpox vaccine, paving the way for international organizations to expedite the purchase. Nishtar said Gavi was “very happy to move very quickly”. She pointed out that just 35 days passed between the WHO declaration of emergency and the agreement to pre-purchase doses of MVA-BN from Gavi, which “is as fast as you can get”. Gavi also decided in June to build a global stockpile of mpox vaccines starting in 2026, as well as vaccines against cholera, Ebola, meningitis and yellow fever. The organization has also launched a vaccine production “accelerator” for Africa, capable of spending up to $1.2 billion over 10 years to accelerate the expansion of vaccine production capacity on the continent. “Overall, we are in a much better scenario than we were with Covid,” Nishtar said.
