Mpox crisis due to scarce supply of vaccines

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared mpox, a viral fever accompanied by rash and lesions, to be a global health emergency on August 14. The virus has infected affected thousands in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and has spilled over into the neighbouring countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya.

It has been found an overwhelming majority who have been infected – 85 per cent – are below the age of 15. What is making the problem worse is that millions of Congolese are living in camps in the east of the country because of political turmoil. The disease is spreading through close physical contact.

There is tested and tried medication for mpox. The vaccines are available. When the WHO declared a global mpox emergency in 2022 and lifted it only in 2023, there were numerous cases in the United States but they were treated and brought under control because the medication is available. The medicines and vaccines available in the United States and other places are not reaching poor and troubled African countries. The pharmaceutical companies do not find it attractive to provide the vaccines to faraway African countries who cannot pay, and the companies are not willing to bring down their prices. This is indeed the harsh truth of the situation arising from the spread of mpox.

The virus is causing concern because it is spreading far from Africa and it has reached the distant shores of Sweden, Pakistan and India. The mpox is not as fatal as Covid-19, but if it were to affect thousands round the globe then it would raise issues of public health. The questions would arise about isolation, tracing of the spread of the virus which would involve government health agencies to act swiftly across the board.

This should also raise the general concern about the spread of deadly viruses and them causing pandemics. Many global experts see the danger of increasing pandemics – due mainly to the viruses – as a regular feature of our future, and many of them suggest anti-pandemic preparedness as a safeguard. Many governments across the world are preparing for such an eventuality.

It is however evident that the viruses have become a menace because the natural habitat of birds and other animals where the viruses seem to find a host are being encroached by human beings, disturbing the danger zone. The idea that the viruses can be killed off through vaccines is a chimera. Viruses are wickedly resilient. They change shape, divide themselves and become vaccine-resistant even as bacteria have become antibiotic resistant. The strategy has to change. It cannot be confined to launching aggressive therapeutics. There are of course no ready-to-use preventive measures. It would need research and planning even as global health infrastructure has to be strengthened.

What is required in the longer term is the study of ecological biology to know how different organisms co-exist through demarcated habitat for millions of years. It is the destruction of the natural habitat for the spread of human colonies that is causing immense imbalance and letting out an avalanche of disasters. Human beings have to come to terms with the viruses and bacteria, and see what can be done to keep them at bay.

This may require the strengthening of the human immune system. There are many challenges in the future and that of the explosion of viral epidemics is certainly one of them. While vaccines and medication are the first line of defence, there have to be ways of preventing the pandemics. We have overcome famines through increased food production, and we have managed floods through dams. We have now to deal with viruses and bacteria.