Ministers asked to explain refusal to donate Mpox vaccines
Health minister Fleur Agema and aid minister Reinette Klever have been asked by MPs to explain why the Netherlands is not donating vaccines against the Mpox virus to parts of Africa, as requested by the World Health Organisation.
Agema said earlier this month the Netherlands will not yet send vaccines to Africa because she wanted to keep Dutch stocks in order. The new variant of Mpox is on the rise in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has been declared a health emergency of international concern.
“Before deciding on a donation, I will wait to see how the situation develops and make sure the strategic stockpile in Netherlands is at a sufficiently high level,” Agema told MPs in a briefing. Both Agema and Klever are ministers on behalf of the far right PVV.
The WHO has asked countries to donate vaccines because of the importance of halting the spread of the virus and to stave of the risk of an international epidemic.
In particular, the GroenLinks-PvdA parliamentarians want to know why the Netherlands is not following the US and the EU advice to help stop the virus spreading. “How did you assess this risk?” the MPs said. “What changes need to occur to prompt a rethink of the initial decision?”
They also want to know how many doses of Mpox vaccine the Netherlands has in stock and what the ministers consider to be a safe level. According to the AD, the Netherlands has had least 100,000 doses available.
The Netherlands was hit by an outbreak of milder form of Mpox in 2022, when over 1300 cases were reported. But the outbreak drew to an end in October 2022 and the vaccination campaign was wound down.
Nevertheless, the Clade 2 variant of the virus continues to circulate and people should still be aware of the risks, theRIVM said last week.
“At the time, people who were at risk were vaccinated and so some of the [vaccine] supply was used up,” virologist Marion Koopmans told the AD. “I would assume we don’t need all that to deal with a new outbreak in the Netherlands. Of course, you need to have some in stock, but not 100,000 doses.”
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