There is an mpox jab. Why is it taking so long to reach Africa?

There is an mpox jab. Why is it taking so long to reach Africa?
Furaha Elisabeth applies medication on the skin of her child Sagesse Hakizimana who is under treatment against Mpox, an infectious disease caused by the Mpox virus that causes a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes and fever, at a health center in Congo (REUTERS)
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Updated 30 August 2024
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There is an mpox jab. Why is it taking so long to reach Africa?

There is an mpox jab. Why is it taking so long to reach Africa?
  • Nigeria is the only African country with doses
  • New variant fairly lethal, experts say

LAGOS/JOHANNESBURG: Mpox is nothing new to Africa yet there is no vaccine available on the continent, exposing rank inequity in global distribution as tens of richer nations inoculate people facing far less risk.
Experts say that inequality — alongside competing health problems and slow regulation — is putting millions of Africans in jeopardy, after scientists found the virus was now mutating fast, leaping from person to person and stealing over borders.
“The lack in the distribution of mpox vaccines in Africa is due to challenges in supply, funding, and infrastructure, and because the disease is less prevalent compared to other health priorities,” Duduzile Ndwandwe, a scientist at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMARA), said in emailed comments.
Mpox had been circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo since January last year but only became a grave concern this January when scientists spotted the worrying, new mutation.
Two mpox vaccines made by Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic and Japan’s KM Biologics used to combat a 2022 outbreak have been widely available in at least 70 countries outside Africa — even administered for free in some US and European clinics.
But before Nigeria received 10,000 doses from the United States this week, no mpox vaccine was available — in any country — in Africa, and the variant now circling vulnerable, displaced populations in DRC is even more virulent than previous strains.
’A serious epidemic’
Mpox, formerly known as monkey pox, has been a public health problem in parts of Africa since 1970, but received little global attention until an international outbreak in 2022.
It typically causes flu-like symptoms, pus-filled lesions and can kill. Protection costs about $100 a person.
Jimmy Whitworth, professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, described the new variant, clade 1b pox, as “fairly lethal.”
“This appears to be from sexual contact that it’s spreading, and this time it is going from person to person,” Whitworth said. “There’s now a need to raise it to the priority list because this is a serious epidemic.”
Since January 2023, there have been more than 27,000 suspected cases and 1,100 deaths in Congo, according to government figures, mainly among children.
The viral infection has spread from DRC to 12 neighboring countries, leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to designate the outbreak a public health emergency.
Many African nations are struggling to meet the challenge.
Whitworth said the $100 needed to distribute a dose of the vaccine is prohibitive for governments who must quash multiple threats — measles, malaria, cholera — with limited budgets.
“It is a huge expense to vaccinate just DRC. If you asked people in DRC last year what the higher priority was, ‘was it the measles or mpox vaccine?’ They would have said ‘measles vaccine’. And so would anybody else in public health because that was a bigger threat then,” the epidemiologist said.
National regulations are also a problem.
Despite the severity of the mpox crisis and the risk of it spreading across DRC’s borders, local regulators only approved a vaccine in June with no date yet set for distribution.
Why the delay?
In 2022, two mpox vaccines, along with public health campaigns against risky behavior, effectively controlled an outbreak that had hit 100 countries globally.
But African countries have so far remained underserved, with efforts only now ramping up to bolster their protection.
Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said it had been granted 9.34 million euros ($10.43 million) in emergency funding from the Africa Union for its mpox response and it said it would need 10 million doses of vaccines.
Bavarian Nordic said it can make 10 million doses of its vaccine by end-2025 and offered 2 million doses this year.
The WHO gave its partner agencies, including global vaccine organization Gavi and UNICEF, the go-ahead to buy mpox vaccines pre-approval to speed their delivery to Africa.
DRC had expected to receive its first vaccines in the week of Aug. 26 after the United States and Japan both promised deliveries, but has since said it would take longer.
European Union countries have also pledged donations to help Africa fight the current outbreak.
Whitworth said regulators in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya, all countries where cases have been detected, should approve vaccines urgently without waiting for a full outbreak.
“The vaccine isn’t even licensed in those countries,” said Whitworth. “Those countries … need to speed up the process.”
Weak health system
Even pre-mpox, Congo’s health system was at breaking point — weighed down by epidemics of measles and Ebola and years of conflict — and campaigners say short-term fixes won’t work.
Katharina Schroeder from Save the Children said long-term investment in social welfare and health care infrastructure were vital to prevent future outbreaks, with many remote health centers lacking basic testing kits or trained staff.
“The health centers outside the city need to be equipped to triage patients … because often they’re looking for things like gloves and masks,” Schroeder said.
Save the Children has been training staff on the disease, but even when diagnoses are successfully sped through, few sick patients can then afford to isolate for the mandated four weeks.
“They understand this is mpox, they understand this is dangerous for their family. But they still don’t go into isolation because they live day by day. They don’t have enough to eat,” Schroeder said.


Father accused of Sara Sharif’s murder confessed to UK police, jurors told

Sara Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London. (File/Surrey Police)
Sara Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London. (File/Surrey Police)
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Father accused of Sara Sharif’s murder confessed to UK police, jurors told

Sara Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London. (File/Surrey Police)
  • Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence”

LONDON: The father of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in her home in Britain, told police “I beat her up too much,” prosecutors said at his murder trial on Monday.
Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London, after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence.”
Her father Urfan Sharif, 42, his wife and Sara Sharif’s stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, and the girl’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, are on trial at London’s Old Bailey court charged with her murder.
The trio are alternatively charged with causing or allowing the death of a child. All three deny the charges against them and blame each other for her death, prosecutors say.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors on the first day of the trial on Monday that Urfan Sharif called British police, having fled to Pakistan after Sara Sharif’s death.
“He used what you may think is an odd expression,” Emlyn Jones said. “He said: ‘I legally punished her and she died’.”
Emlyn Jones said that Urfan Sharif also told police: “I beat her up. It wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.”
The prosecutor said a note in Urfan Sharif’s handwriting was also found next to his daughter’s body, which read: “I swear to God that my intention was not to kill her. But I lost it.”
Emlyn Jones told the jury that each of Urfan Sharif, Batool and Malik “played their part in the violence and mistreatment which resulted in Sara’s death.”
The three defendants all deny responsibility for any of violence and abuse and each “seeks to deflect the blame onto one or both of the others,” Emlyn Jones said.
Urfan Sharif blames his wife Batool, Emlyn Jones said, and his apparent confessions to the police were designed to “protect the true guilty party.”
The prosecutor added that Batool’s case is that Urfan Sharif was a “violent disciplinarian” and that she was scared of him, while Malik says he was unaware of any abuse or violence.
The trial is expected to run until December.


India accuses Canada of ‘deliberate’ smear campaign in latest diplomatic row

India accuses Canada of ‘deliberate’ smear campaign in latest diplomatic row
Updated 1 min 13 sec ago
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India accuses Canada of ‘deliberate’ smear campaign in latest diplomatic row

India accuses Canada of ‘deliberate’ smear campaign in latest diplomatic row
  • Last year’s murder of a Sikh separatist activist in Surrey is at the center of diplomatic row
  • India ‘reserves the right to take further steps’ after latest allegations, foreign ministry says

NEW DELHI: India said on Monday that the Canadian government was deliberately smearing New Delhi for political gain, after being told by Canada that its envoy and other diplomats in Ottawa were named ‘persons of interest’ in an investigation.

India and Canada have been under diplomatic strain since last September, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country was investigating “credible allegations” that agents of the Indian government were involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen of Indian descent who was shot dead by masked gunmen in Surrey, British Columbia.

The Indian government rejected the allegation as “absurd” then, and the two countries expelled their senior diplomats in reciprocal moves. India also moved to suspend visa services for Canadian citizens, which have since been restored.

After over a year, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the government received diplomatic communication from Canada on Sunday “suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats were ‘persons of interest’”in an ongoing investigation.

“The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government that is centered around vote bank politics,” the ministry said in a statement issued on Monday.

“This latest step follows interactions that have again witnessed assertions without any facts. This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains.”

The Canadian government “has not shared a shred of evidence” with New Delhi since their allegations last year, it added.

At the center of the Canadian investigation is Nijjar, who was an outspoken supporter of the Khalistan movement, which calls for a separate Sikh homeland in parts of India’s Punjab state.

The movement is outlawed in India and considered a national security threat by the government, which formally designated Nijjar as a terrorist.

He was shot dead last June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, which has a significant number of Sikh residents.

Canada is home to the world’s largest Sikh community outside India — about 770,000 people, or 2 percent of its entire population.

The Indian government said Trudeau has long been hostile to India, adding that his government “has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate” Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada.

“India now reserves the right to take further steps in response to these latest efforts of the Canadian Government to concoct allegations against Indian diplomats,” the Foreign Ministry said.


Spanish PM says ‘no withdrawal’ of UN force from Lebanon

Spanish PM says ‘no withdrawal’ of UN force from Lebanon
Updated 30 min 19 sec ago
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Spanish PM says ‘no withdrawal’ of UN force from Lebanon

Spanish PM says ‘no withdrawal’ of UN force from Lebanon
  • Spain condemns Netanyahu’s call for the force to pull back
  • Sanchez affirmed his commitment to a UN Security Council resolution that bolstered the force’s role in 2006

MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday said there would be “no withdrawal” of the UN peacekeeping force from southern Lebanon after Israeli attacks and calls to leave.
Israel’s offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia has thrust the UNIFIL force deployed in Lebanon since 1978 into the spotlight.
The force, which involves about 9,500 troops from some 50 nations led by a Spanish general, has reported multiple Israeli attacks in recent days that injured five of its troops and sparked international condemnation.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on them to withdraw for their own safety and said their presence had “the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields.”
Spain condemns Netanyahu’s call for the force to pull back and “there will be no withdrawal of UNIFIL,” Sanchez told a forum in Barcelona.
Sanchez affirmed his commitment to a UN Security Council resolution that bolstered the force’s role in 2006 following the last major conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which stipulated that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in south Lebanon.
That commitment “makes more sense today than ever after seeing what is happening on the ground,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez has been one of the most strident critics of the Netanyahu government’s war in Gaza, which was sparked by last year’s unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel.
The war has drawn in Iran-backed groups from across the region including Hezbollah, with Israel last month escalating its cross-border fire with the group and launching a ground offensive in southern Lebanon.


EU sanctions Iran over ballistic missiles for Russia

EU sanctions Iran over ballistic missiles for Russia
Updated 14 October 2024
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EU sanctions Iran over ballistic missiles for Russia

EU sanctions Iran over ballistic missiles for Russia
  • European Union foreign ministers approved the sanctions on seven entities

BRUSSELS: The EU imposed sanctions on Monday on prominent Iranian officials and entities, including airlines, accused of taking part in the transfer of missiles and drones for Russia to use against Ukraine.
European Union foreign ministers approved the sanctions on seven entities, including Iran Air, and seven individuals, including deputy defense minister Seyed Hamzeh Ghalandari and senior officials of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, the bloc said.
Leading European powers Britain, France and Germany adopted similar sanctions last month over Iranian missile transfers to Russia, as did the United States.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the adoption of the sanctions by the entire bloc, while adding: “More is needed.”
“The Iranian regime’s support to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is unacceptable and must stop,” she posted on X.
Two other Iranian airlines, Saha Airlines and Mahan Air, were hit under the EU measures, along with two procurement firms blamed for the “transfer and supply, through transnational procurement networks, of Iran-made UAVs and related components and technologies to Russia.”
The sanctions also target two companies involved in the production of propellant used to launch rockets and missiles.
Those targeted are subject to an asset freeze and banned from traveling to the European Union.
Iran rejects Western accusations it has transferred missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine.
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, dozens of Russian military personnel have received training in Iran on using the Fath-360 missile, which has a range of 120 kilometers (75 miles).


UN refugee chief urges states to drop border controls as displacement crises worsen

UN refugee chief urges states to drop border controls as displacement crises worsen
Updated 58 min 56 sec ago
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UN refugee chief urges states to drop border controls as displacement crises worsen

UN refugee chief urges states to drop border controls as displacement crises worsen
  • More than 123 million people displaced around the world
  • Continued air strikes set to worsen Lebanon displacement
  • Calls for drastic increase in support for Sudanese refugees

GENEVA: The head of the UN refugee agency warned on Monday that displacement crises in Lebanon and Sudan could worsen, but said tighter border measures were not the solution, calling them ineffective and sometimes unlawful.
Addressing more than 100 diplomats and ministers in Geneva at UNHCR’s annual meeting, Filippo Grandi said an unprecedented 123 million people are now displaced around the world by conflicts, persecution, poverty and climate change.
“You might then ask: what can be done? For a start, do not focus only on your borders,” he said, urging leaders instead to look at the reasons people are fleeing their homes.
“We must seek to address the root causes of displacement, and work toward solutions,” he said. “I beg you all that we continue to work — together and with humility — to seize every opportunity to find solutions for refugees.”
Without naming countries, Grandi said initiatives to outsource, externalize or even suspend asylum schemes were in breach of international law, and he offered countries help in finding fair, fast and lawful asylum schemes.
Western governments are under growing domestic pressure to get tougher on asylum seekers and Grandi has previously criticized a plan by the former British government to transfer them to Rwanda.
In the same speech he warned that in Lebanon, where more than one million people have fled their homes due to a growing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the situation could worsen further.
“Surely, if airstrikes continue, many more will be displaced and some will also decide to move on to other countries.”
He called for a drastic increase in support for refugees in Sudan’s civil war, saying lack of resources was already driving them across the Mediterranean Sea and even across the Channel to Britain.
“In this lethal equation, something has got to give. Otherwise, nobody should be surprised if displacement keeps growing, in numbers but also in geographic spread,” he said.
The UNHCR response to the crisis that aims to help a portion of the more than 11 million people displaced inside Sudan or in neighboring countries is less than 1/3 funded, Grandi said.
The number of displaced people around the world has more than doubled in the past decade.
Grandi, set to serve as high commissioner until Dec. 2025, said the agency’s funding for this year had recently improved due to US support but remained “well below the needs.”