Mpox: ONE urges governments to give African countries access to vaccines as WHO declares global health emergency  

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Mpox outbreak in Africa a public health emergency. The ONE Campaign is calling on world leaders not to repeat the mistakes of the COVID-19 pandemic and to ensure that African countries have immediate access to the vaccines and diagnostics they need.  

“History shows we must act quickly and decisively when a public health emergency strikes. The current Mpox outbreak in Africa is one such emergency”, says Jenny Ottenhoff, Senior Policy Director, Global Health, at ONE. She continues: “The Africa CDC has called for global support and solidarity; countries and companies must answer that call by ensuring vaccines and diagnostics are readily available. Without these tools, countries will once again be left defenseless against a deadly virus.” 

In light of the public health emergency, ONE is calling on governments and pharmaceutical companies to increase the availability of Mpox vaccines and urgently ensure that the most affected African countries have affordable access to them. Currently, 10 million doses of vaccine are needed to control the Mpox outbreak in Africa, but the continent has only 200,000 doses. 
 
This year, more than 17,000 cases of Mpox and over 500 deaths have been reported in 13 African countries. Last week alone, there were over 2,500 new cases and more than 50 deaths. Concerns about the outbreak have grown as the number of cases has increased.