The hands of a patient with skin rashes caused by the mpox virus are pictured in Kinshasa.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced that the MVA-BN vaccine, the first against Mpox, has been added to its prequalification list in a bid to reduce transmission and help contain the current outbreak.
While the announcement has been received with hope, there have been murmurs of scepticism from some quarters, with some even going as far as implying, without proof, that the vaccine is a contaminated version of Covid-19.
However, some local experts have moved to calm these fears.
Dr Ahmed Kalebi, Council Member of the College of Pathologists of East, Central and Southern Africa (COPECSA), offered: “I have not seen any credible scientific evidence to back up the allegations that Covid vaccines cause Mpox.
These are common allegations that come from anti-vaxxers. Secondly, WHO, International Vaccine Alliance and in the medical world in general, there is no drug that is given to humans – especially in cases like vaccines – without going through vigorous tests.
Other than Covid vaccines, there is no other vaccine that has been expedited. There was a lot of concern about the safety of Covid because it was prepared for emergency use in less than one year. Other vaccines go through many phases of trial. Most vaccines are tested for between 10 to 15 years.”
He said that there are cases where the products of one organism are used to treat another, “which is not something new”.
“There are examples of live vaccines in the case of TB treatment. The vaccine we use to treat tuberculosis is a form of TB virus that is less severe and it used to suppress the main TB. There are many other examples. In general vaccines have their risks. Where the benefits outweigh the risks, we use the vaccine. That is the general principle of medicine: save life and deal with the consequences later,” Dr Kalebi said of the concerns surrounding the Mpox vaccine.
On his part, Director-General of Health Patrick Amoth said Kenya lacks the technology to prove correlation between Covid-19 vaccines and Mpox outbreak. However, he downplayed fears by anti-vaxxers, saying the emergency situation called for rapid response and the vaccines approved by WHO were necessitated by the burgeoning load of Mpox in East Africa.
“I cannot question the efficacy of the vaccines. The challenge we are facing with modern vaccines is that, because of new and emerging pathogens we have had to develop vaccines quickly for emergency-use authorisation only and for research purposes. That means scientists have to come together to develop a vaccine, but the use of that vaccine is restricted for research purposes. Because of that, determining efficacy maybe a challenge, especially in the Global South where we don’t have the technical capacity (to determine the safety of the vaccines),” he told The Weekly Review.
Dr Willis Akhwale, chair of the National Taskforce on Covid-19 Deployment and Vaccination, noted: “Acceptance of vaccination is going to be a challenge given that these cases are still few and scattered. We lack quality control for the vaccine and safety profile for wide use and justification where the number of cases is low. There is need for infrastructure to independently confirm the safety of the drugs.”
Data shows Kenya was still out of the Mpox vortex as at November 10, having recorded only 17 cases out of more than 15,000 people screened so far. Reached for comment on the status and safety of vaccine expected in the country before the year, Health Cabinet Secretary Debra Mulongo’s office, declined to comment.
Instructively, Kenya is not planning a mass vaccination campaign, according to health officials. However, data from FDA link MNA to myocarditis and pericarditis, immune system disorders, nervous system disorders and administration site issues.
Separately, data from US government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) dated September 27 indicate 2,115 reports of adverse events related to MVA-BN, including 19 reports for people under 18.
Drawing from his experience at Kenyatta National Hospital where he works as a surgeon and had first-hand interaction with Covid patients, Dr Daniel Nyarunda says the Mpox vaccine “is a new thing and as far as vaccines are concerned, vaccines have to go through many stages before they become safe for human use.
At this point I didn’t think there is any cause of alarm. In any case Mpox is a disease that resolves itself. I wouldn’t term it as something that should worry people like Covid. Covid was a new thing and its affects are disastrous”.
Dr Nyarunda rules out a correlation between Covid vaccines intake and Mpox upsurge in Africa.
William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, USA, says, “These are two completely different viruses and of course, the vaccine against Covid has nothing to do with Mpox.”
Citing the history of vaccinations since 1780, Dr Amoth said there is verifiable evidence of cowpox-causing virus being used as an antidote for smallpox. The position is shared by Dr Akhwale and Dr Kalebi.
“You know vaccines have been with us since the 1780s when Edward Jenner – the father of vaccination –noticed that milkmen who were exposed to cowpox never got smallpox. Since then vaccine have had tremendous impact on public health in the global community. Vaccines go through stringent regulatory approval process at regional and global level,” said Dr Amoth.
Editor's Note: This story has been edited to reflect local experts' takes on the Mpox vaccine.
