By Jennifer Rigby
LONDON (Reuters) – The global vaccine group Gavi has up to $500 million to spend on getting shots to countries affected by an escalating mpox outbreak in Africa, its chief executive Sania Nishtar told Reuters.
Gavi helps countries with less resources buy and deploy vaccines, usually against childhood vaccines like measles, but it expanded into broader efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The money is available in the organization’s ‘First Response’ fund, which was set up after global health agencies like Gavi were left behind by high-income countries in procuring vaccines during the early days of COVID-19.
It can be used to respond to health emergencies, which were declared by the World Health Organization and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week.
The funds are largely left over from money donated by governments and global health funders for the COVID-19 response.
“The money for the vaccines is ready to be tapped into,” said Nishtar, but there were hurdles to clear, including official requests for vaccines from affected countries, as well as approvals of the vaccines from the World Health Organization, which declared mpox a global health emergency on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Bernadette Baum)