Medical experts say the government should quickly coordinate monkeypox vaccines in Australia, after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus a global emergency on Sunday. They said countries must learn from the mistakes made during the COVID-19 pandemic in organizing the rapid. availability of vaccines.
Professor and epidemiologist Andrew Grulich of the Kirby Institute said the disease is spreading in a way “we haven’t seen before”.
“While this has spread in parts of Africa, from transmission from various mammals to humans, this is the first major epidemic where it has spread in a large number of human-to-human cases,” he said. . “The statement is really. a call to action. It is a recognition that this new condition has spread significantly around the world and that member states of the World Health Organization must respond with urgency”. .
“If we act quickly in Australia, we have a chance to completely avoid the epidemics we are seeing in much of Europe and North America.”
Professor Grulich said a smallpox vaccine was not yet approved in Australia and called on the Therapeutic Goods Administration to approve it “as soon as possible”. Australian Medical Association vice-president Dr Chris Moy said the smallpox vaccine can be used to prevent monkeypox, but because smallpox was eradicated in the 1980s, there is a shortage of this vaccine worldwide.” [monkeypox], which is essentially the smallpox vaccine and there are actually a bunch of different smallpox vaccines. “But smallpox vaccines have not been available for general use for a long time. And the main reason is because smallpox has disappeared. “Smallpox was a mass killer in the past, but because it has gone, we haven’t really had to keep a lot of vaccines, except for the prevention of things like biological warfare and things like that.”
He said the incubation period for patients can last for weeks.
“After you catch it, there’s an incubation period, which can be as long as a few weeks,” he said. “But after this period, people develop high fever, severe headaches, large glands and then they will develop large chicken pox on their body “In recent cases they have affected the palms and soles of the feet.
Dr Moy said the WHO statement should encourage governments to learn from mistakes made during the COVID-19 pandemic around international coordination.
“If you actually read the World Health Organization statement, it’s a statement to governments and public health officials around the world to come together and work together as they didn’t during the COVID pandemic,” said Dr Moy to anyone in Australia. who had been in contact with someone with monkeypox to call their GP for directions. There have been more than 16,000 cases in 75 countries and five deaths in Africa in the current outbreak. The Australian Department of Health said most people do not need treatment. “We are working closely with our state and territory counterparts to ensure a swift and coordinated response,” the department said in a statement on July 20. The vaccine expert advisory group, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ATAGI), meets weekly on Wednesdays.
SBS has asked the federal health department and ATAGI for comment.