Carolina Gomez Mena
The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 24, 2024, p. 11
After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency of international importance in the middle of this month due to the outbreak of Mpox or monkeypox in Africa, caused by a new variant of the virus, the VIHve Libre group pointed out the importance of vaccinating at-risk populations – men who have sex with men and who are also HIV carriers.
Alaín Pinzón, founder and leader of the organization, said: The Day They hope that the next federal administration will change its stance and immunize the sectors most susceptible to getting sick and developing serious conditions or even dying.
He indicated that although there is no specific biological product for Mpox, those that exist for common smallpox have proven to be effective. He recalled that in the 2022 Mpox outbreak, various countries vaccinated the population at risk, including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and in Latin America, Brazil and Chile did so, among others.
The latter country continues to immunize against the disease PrEP users (HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis), men who have sex with other men, those who have had a sexually transmitted infection in the last year and anyone who has had close contact with someone with Mpox.
It is now a different variant, but it is more contagious and more deadly, and so far there is only one case outside Africa, reported in Europe.
However, Pinzón added, We need to have a vaccine available, as well as timely detection of hepatitis C and B, because the highest mortality in Mexico due to Mpox in 2022 was mainly from people living with infections such as syphilis and hepatitis
.
