Spain will donate 100,000 vials of smallpox vaccine to Central African countries, the Spanish government announced Tuesday, urging the European Commission to lead an initiative for member states to make an equal contribution.
The Spanish Ministry of Health stressed in a statement that 100,000 doses are equivalent to 20% of its reserves and will allow up to 500,000 people to be vaccinated.
“It doesn’t make sense to store vaccines in a place where there are no problems, and now is the time to prove it.”The ministry, which insists it is essential to act in the Central African Republic, the epicentre of the current outbreak that has led the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency of international concern for the second time, stressed.
On the day the WHO made this announcement, August 14, the European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) announced that it would provide the African continent with more than 215,000 doses of the only smallpox vaccine approved in Europe and the United States.
The ministry notes that to contain the current outbreak, about 10 million doses of the vaccine will be needed.
In this context, Spain communicated its donation to the European Commission and asked it to lead a collective commitment on the part of all Member States to make the same contribution.
“We must overcome the tendency to confront the public health emergency of international concern about smallpox by hoarding vaccines and not protecting the countries of Central Africa, where the problem is currently most serious.”The Spanish Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, was highlighted on social media.
The Spanish announcement comes 24 hours after Germany said it would donate 100,000 doses of the vaccine.
France had previously announced a similar commitment to the same quantity of doses.
Moxie is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans, but can also be transmitted between humans through physical contact, causing fever, muscle pain, and skin lesions.
A new strain (“clade 1b”) of smallpox was discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRCongo) in September 2023 and was subsequently reported in several neighbouring countries.
The resurgence in Africa is having a major impact on the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
Last Friday, the European Commission asked member states to send vaccines in solidarity to the African continent.
The delivery of vaccines is in line with a request to this effect made by the European Commission last Friday.
“I have written to EU health ministers about plans to donate vaccines and treatments against smallpox. Global solidarity is essential to combat global health threats,” European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides wrote in a post on social network X (formerly Twitter).
“We are counting on member states to support our African partners in managing the outbreak,” the official added, and “the Commission stands ready to coordinate” the mobilization.
Since January, nearly 21,500 cases and 591 deaths from the disease have been reported in 13 African countries.
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