Morocco produces Africa’s first mpox tests as the continent tries to rely less on imports

Morocco produces Africa’s first mpox tests as the continent tries to rely less on imports
A view of mpox test kits is displayed in Moldiag, a biotechnology startup, in Tamesna, Morocco, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 09 December 2024
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Morocco produces Africa’s first mpox tests as the continent tries to rely less on imports

Morocco produces Africa’s first mpox tests as the continent tries to rely less on imports
  • Morocco has reported three mpox cases, though most have been in central Africa
  • Moroccan startup Moldiag began developing mpox tests after the World Health Organization declared the virus a global emergency in August

TAMESNA: After African countries struggled to get testing kits during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials vowed to make the continent less dependent on imported medical supplies. Now, in a first for Africa, a Moroccan company is filling orders for mpox tests as an outbreak continues.
Moroccan startup Moldiag began developing mpox tests after the World Health Organization declared the virus a global emergency in August. Africa’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported more than 59,000 mpox cases and 1,164 deaths in 20 countries this year.
The WHO has also announced a plan to provide mpox tests, vaccines and treatments to the most vulnerable people in the world’s poorest countries, after facing criticism for moving too slowly on vaccines. It recommends all suspected mpox cases be tested.
But in some far-flung areas of the mpox outbreak, tests have to be delivered to distant labs for processing. Most of Congo’s 26 provinces don’t have such facilities. And some areas have no tests. In eastern Congo’s South Kivu province, doctors are still diagnosing patients by taking temperatures and looking for visible symptoms.
That makes it difficult to tell how the virus is spreading, health officials say.
“This is a major problem,” said Musole Robert, medical director of the Kavumu Referral Hospital, one of the few treating mpox patients in eastern Congo. “The main issue remains the laboratory, which is not adequately equipped.”
Mpox primarily spreads through close skin-to-skin contact with infected people or their soiled clothes or bedsheets. It often causes visible skin lesions. A health worker swabs the rash and sends the sample to a lab. Mpox testing is critical because many symptoms resemble diseases like chicken pox or measles.
When mpox cases were found in some Western countries like the United States in 2022, some companies began developing rapid test kits that don’t require lab processing. But they shelved those efforts when the virus was largely contained.
Then outbreaks emerged again in Africa. Scientists are concerned by the spread of a new version of the disease that might be more easily transmitted among people.
Morocco has reported three mpox cases, though most have been in central Africa.
At his factory in Morocco, Moldiag founder and chief scientific officer Abdeladim Moumen said the tests they make — sold for $5 each — can help to remedy shortages affordably.
The company last month began accepting orders from Burundi, Uganda and Congo and has also sold them to Senegal and Nigeria as well.
“It’s rather easy to send tests from an African nation to another one rather than waiting for tests to come in from China or Europe,” Moumen said.
Moldiag was founded out of Morocco’s Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation and Research, a university-affiliated nonprofit whose research has received funding from the European Commission and Morocco’s government. The startup previously developed similar genetic tests for COVID-19 and tuberculosis.
Moldiag won approval to distribute its mpox tests from the Africa CDC in November. But it hasn’t submitted paperwork to be considered for expedited approval from the WHO, which during this outbreak has approved three mpox tests and is considering five others. Each is made in North America, Europe or Asia.
The Africa CDC’s acting director for laboratory diagnostics and systems, Yenew Tebeje, said the organization created a process to accelerate approval of tests like Moldiag’s because the WHO’s approval process can take months or years and “be a limiting factor for access to diagnostics.”
Historically, international institutions have not always ensured medical supplies like tests are quickly made available for crises in Africa, Tebeje added.
Only mpox tests that require laboratory processing have been approved by the WHO and Africa CDC, which has expressed the need for rapid tests that don’t need to be sent to labs.
Moldiag and other companies are working to develop rapid tests and pursue approval.
Moldiag’s $5 price for the current tests aligns with recommendations from both the WHO’s target product standards and demands of health advocates who have criticized the cost of other tests. The nonprofit Public Citizen last month called on Cepheid — one of the WHO’s three approved mpox test manufacturers — to reduce its price from about $20 to $5, citing a Doctors Without Borders analysis showing genetic tests can be produced for less.
Africa-based manufacturing fulfills a primary objective that African Union member states agreed on after the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed global disparities and unequal access to medical supplies, including vaccines, tests and antiviral medications.
In 2022, shaken by the pandemic, African leaders called for action to address those disparities plaguing the continent’s over 1.4 billion people, who experience the highest incidence of public health emergencies.
Moumen said experts were waking up to the fact that it makes more sense for tests to come from regions where outbreaks are taking place so manufacturers can tailor production to address issues close to home.
“They want African tests for Africa,” he said.


Second Israeli far-right minister opposes Gaza deal

Second Israeli far-right minister opposes Gaza deal
Updated 5 sec ago
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Second Israeli far-right minister opposes Gaza deal

Second Israeli far-right minister opposes Gaza deal
JERUSALEM: A key far-right member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on Tuesday became the second minister to publicly oppose a Gaza truce deal but said he would not topple the ruling coalition.
“The deal is truly catastrophic,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on his Telegram channel.
“This effectively erases the hard-won achievements of the war, which have been earned at the great cost of the blood of our soldiers in Gaza.
“It is a conscious decision to pay the price with the lives of many other Israeli citizens, who will, unfortunately, bear the burden of this deal,” Ben Gvir added.
Ben Gvir, an outspoken member of Netanyahu’s government, has steadfastly opposed halting the war in Gaza.
He is the second minister to publicly reject a deal being negotiated in Doha between Israel and Hamas through international mediators.
On Monday, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also opposed any agreement that would halt the war.
These stances highlight sharp divides in the ruling coalition.
Netanyahu could nonetheless muster enough support to pass the deal through his cabinet, even without their backing.
He is assured of receiving majority votes in the 34-member cabinet supporting the deal, even if Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who together control six ministers, vote against it.
Israel’s main opposition leader, Yair Lapid, has also publicly said he would back Netanyahu to ensure the government does not collapse if Ben Gvir and Smotrich withdraw.
“He doesn’t need them... I offered him a political safety net for a hostage deal,” Lapid said on Monday.
Ben Gvir said he and Smotrich had tried to block the deal for a year.
“Over the past year, through our political power, we have managed to block this deal from being executed time and again,” he said.
“However, new elements have since joined the government and now support the deal, leaving us no longer a decisive force.”
He urged Smotrich to join him in opposing what he described as a “disastrous deal.”
He said the two could make “a clear statement to the prime minister that if this deal proceeds, we will withdraw from the government.”
However, the two would not seek to bring down the government, he said.
“I emphasize that even if we find ourselves in the opposition, we will not topple Netanyahu,” he said.
“However, this step is our only chance to prevent the deal from being executed and to stop Israel’s capitulation to Hamas after more than a year of bloody war.”

Gaza, Lebanon conflicts see civilian casualties at highest point in over a decade

People stand next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in Gaza.
People stand next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in Gaza.
Updated 10 min 19 sec ago
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Gaza, Lebanon conflicts see civilian casualties at highest point in over a decade

People stand next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in Gaza.
  • Israeli military action responsible for more than half of all non-combatants killed or injured in bombings and explosions in 2024
  • Last year saw casualty figures increase globally by more than two-thirds, with airstrikes the leading cause of death and injury

LONDON: The number of civilian casualties worldwide caused by bombings or explosions during conflicts has reached its highest point in over a decade, driven in particular by Israel’s campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.

The monitoring group Action on Armed Violence said it had identified 61,353 non-combatants killed or wounded in 2024, up 67 percent on 2023. Of those figures, 25,116 were fatalities, a 51 percent increase.

AOAV said Israeli military activity in Gaza and Lebanon was responsible for 55 percent of all civilians killed or wounded by explosions, at 33,910 people.

Gaza alone accounted for 39 percent of all casualties recorded, with 14,435 killed in explosions and 9,314 injured.

The civil war in Sudan has also contributed to the uptick in numbers, as well as 11,693 civilians killed or wounded by explosions in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Spikes in casualties between 2013 and 2017 were due to the conflict in Syria, but the 2024 total was more than double that previous high-water mark. 

The top cause of death and injury from explosions in 2024 was airstrikes — a tactic Israel has used extensively in Gaza and Lebanon.

The number of casualties caused this way more than doubled from 2023, with 30,804 people affected.

AOAV Executive Director Iain Overton said: “2024 has been a catastrophic year for civilians caught in explosive violence, particularly in Gaza, Ukraine and Lebanon. The international community cannot ignore the scale of harm caused.”

The true number of people affected by bombings and explosions is likely to be far higher, as AOAV bases its figures on English-language accounts of incidents.

For instance, where AOAV was only able to verify 14,435 people killed by explosions in Gaza, local health authorities put the number at 23,600.

A report last week in medical journal The Lancet estimated that casualties in Gaza in 2024 could be as much as 40 percent higher than those reported by the enclave’s authorities. 


Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion

Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion
Updated 51 min 59 sec ago
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Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion

Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam said on Tuesday his hands are extended to everyone, in a gesture to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group that accused opponents of seeking to exclude it by nominating him for the post.
Salam, nominated by a majority of Lebanese lawmakers on Monday, said he opposed exclusion and supported unity. “This is my sincere call, and my hands are extended to everyone,” he said.
Salam, who was serving as president of the International Court of Justice before his designation as prime minister, cited priorities including rebuilding Lebanon from last year’s devastating war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The choice of Salam underlined a major shift in the power balance among Lebanon’s sectarian factions since Hezbollah was pummelled in its conflict with Israel, and its ally in neighboring Syria, Bashar Assad, was
toppled
by rebels.
“Reconstruction isn’t just a promise, but a commitment, and this requires complete implementation of UN Resolution 1701, implementation of all articles of the ceasefire, and imposing the full withdrawal of the Israeli enemy from every inch” of Lebanon, Salam said.
He added that he would work for justice for the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, and for depositors whose savings have been frozen inside the Lebanese financial system since its collapse in 2019.
“It is time to begin a new chapter, one that we want to be rooted in justice, security, progress, and opportunity,” Salam said after meeting President Joseph Aoun. 


Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital

Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital
Updated 14 January 2025
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Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital

Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital
  • Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has escalated in recent weeks after more than 20 months of war in Sudan

Port Sudan: Sudanese volunteer rescuers said shelling of an area of Omdurman, the capital Khartoum’s twin city just across the Nile River, killed more than 120 people.
The “random shelling” on Monday in western Omdurman resulted in the deaths of 120 civilians, said the Ombada Emergency Response Room, part of a network of volunteer rescuers across the war-torn country.
The network described the toll as preliminary and did not specify who was behind the attack.
The rescuers said medical supplies were in critically short supply as health workers struggled to treat “a large number of wounded people suffering from varying degrees of injuries.”
Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has escalated in recent weeks after more than 20 months of war in Sudan.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war which has left the country on the brink of famine, according to aid agencies.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of targeting civilians, including health workers, and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
Most of Omdurman is under army control while the RSF holds the capital and part of the greater Khartoum area.
Residents on both sides of the Nile have reported shelling across the river, with bombs and shrapnel regularly striking homes and civilians.


Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment

Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment
Updated 14 January 2025
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Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment

Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment

ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s key nationalist ally urged jailed PKK militant group leader Abdullah Ocalan to explicitly announce the group’s disbandment after his next expected meeting with the country’s pro-Kurdish political party.
The remarks by nationalist Devlet Bahceli came after a rare meeting between officials from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and Ocalan last week.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkiye, has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.