TAMESNA, Morocco (AP) — Following the COVID-19 pandemic, when African nations had difficulty obtaining testing kits, policymakers pledged to reduce the continent’s reliance on imported medical supplies. As the pandemic spreads, a Moroccan company is now fulfilling requests formpoxtests, a first for Africa.
After the World Health Organization declared the virus a worldwide emergency in August, Moroccan startup Moldiag started creating mpox tests. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa have reported 1,164 deaths and almost 59,000 mpox cases in 20 countries so far this year.
The WHO, which has come under fire for moving too slowly on vaccines, has also launched a plan to deliver mpox diagnostics, vaccines, and treatments to the most susceptible individuals in the world’s poorest nations. It advises testing all suspected instances of mpox.
However, in some remote mpox outbreak locations, tests must be sent to far-off labs for processing. The majority of Congo’s 26 provinces lack these amenities. Additionally, certain regions lack tests. Doctors in the South Kivu province of eastern Congo continue to diagnose patients by taking their temperatures and searching for outward signs of illness.
According to health officials, this makes it challenging to determine how the infection is spreading.
Musole Robert, medical director of the Kavumu Referral Hospital, one of the few facilities in eastern Congo that treats mpox victims, stated that this is a serious issue. The laboratory’s lack of proper equipment continues to be the primary problem.
Close skin-to-skin contact with infected individuals or their contaminated clothing or bed linens is the main way that mpox is transmitted. It frequently results in noticeable skin sores. A health worker swabs the rash and sends the sample to a lab. Mpox testing is critical because many symptoms resemble diseases like chicken pox or measles.
When mpox cases were found in some Western countries like the United States in 2022, some companies began developing rapid test kits that don t require lab processing. But they shelved those efforts when the virus was largely contained.
Then outbreaks emerged again in Africa. Scientists are concerned by the spread of anew version of the diseasethat might be more easily transmitted among people.
Morocco has reported three mpox cases, though most have been in central Africa.
At his factory in Morocco, Moldiag founder and chief scientific officer Abdeladim Moumen said the tests they make sold for $5 each can help to remedy shortages affordably.
The company last month began accepting orders from Burundi, Uganda and Congo and has also sold them to Senegal and Nigeria as well.
It s rather easy to send tests from an African nation to another one rather than waiting for tests to come in from China or Europe, Moumen said.
Moldiag was founded out of Morocco s Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation and Research, a university-affiliated nonprofit whose research has received funding from the European Commission and Morocco s government. The startup previously developed similar genetic tests for COVID-19 and tuberculosis.
Moldiag won approval to distribute its mpox tests from the Africa CDC in November. But it hasn t submitted paperwork to be considered for expedited approval from the WHO, which during this outbreak has approved three mpox tests and is considering five others. Each is made in North America, Europe or Asia.
The Africa CDC s acting director for laboratory diagnostics and systems, Yenew Tebeje, said the organization created a process to accelerate approval of tests like Moldiag s because the WHO s approval process can take months or years and be a limiting factor for access to diagnostics.
Historically, international institutions have not always ensured medical supplies like tests are quickly made available for crises in Africa, Tebeje added.
Only mpox tests that require laboratory processing have been approved by the WHO and Africa CDC, which has expressed the need for rapid tests that don t need to be sent to labs.
Moldiag and other companies are working to develop rapid tests and pursue approval.
Moldiag s $5 price for the current tests aligns with recommendations from both the WHO s target product standards and demands of health advocates who have criticized the cost of other tests. The nonprofit Public Citizen last month called on Cepheid one of the WHO s three approved mpox test manufacturers to reduce its price from about $20 to $5, citing a Doctors Without Borders analysis showing genetic tests can be produced for less.
Africa-based manufacturing fulfills a primary objective that African Union member states agreed on after the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed globaldisparitiesandunequal accessto medical supplies, includingvaccines,testsand antiviral medications.
In 2022, shaken by the pandemic, African leaders called for action to address those disparities plaguing the continent s over 1.4 billion people, who experience the highest incidence of public health emergencies.
Moumen said experts were waking up to the fact that it makes more sense for tests to come from regions where outbreaks are taking place so manufacturers can tailor production to address issues close to home.
They want African tests for Africa, he said.
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Alonga reported from Goma, Congo. Houda Benalla contributed reporting from Tamesna, Morocco.
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