The WHO says we must work together to fight monkeypox. African doctors are skeptical

As an infectious diseases specialist in Atlanta, Dr. Boghuma Kabisen Titanji spent much of 2020 on the front lines of the COVID-19 battle raging in the U.S. 

When a vaccine arrived in December that year, she felt some relief. But also, fear. 

"I had seen what COVID was capable of doing to people the age of my parents," Titanji said. 

"I was absolutely terrified because from the moment I had access to vaccination up until the moment my parents had access to vaccination, it was eight months."

In Cameroon, where Titanji is from, her parents didn't get a first coronavirus jab until August 2021. By that time, most Canadian and American adults were well past their second shots. 

"It was the most nerve wracking experience of living in fear that they would get COVID," she said. 

Despite the World Health Organization's pleas to rich countries to stop stockpiling COVID vaccines and share with the lower-income nations – particularly in Africa – global health experts agree that we failed. 

They also aren't surprised, because the same inequitable distribution of vaccines and treatments has been a pattern for decades. 

On July 23, the WHO declared monkeypox a "public health emergency of international concern" – and doctors fear the same pattern will repeat itself as Canada, the U.S. and European countries rush to vaccinate at-risk populations. 

They're using a vaccine originally manufactured for smallpox, which has been eradicated. In Canada, it's called Imvamune, and small quantities were stockpiled years ago in case smallpox ever returned. Imvamune is also approved to vaccinate people against monkeypox. 

Yet monkeypox has been endemic in several African nations for 50 years. Dozens have died this year alone, Titanji said, but no vaccine has ever been made available, except for targeted studies involving health-care workers.   

When she dealt with monkeypox outbreaks in Cameroon, she said there was also no access to antivirals to treat the disease.

"If you diagnose someone with monkeypox [in Africa], you provide supportive care. So basically, you make the diagnosis and you tell them to isolate and, you know, take paracetamol for their fever … and to rest and recover." 

Although anyone can become infected through close contact with someone who has monkeypox or with personal items like bed linens, in countries outside Africa, the most at-risk population right now is men who have sex with men. In Africa, it has historically been spread primarily through contact with infected animals.