(Montreal) Scientists and activists attending the AIDS 2022 conference in Montreal on Sunday urged governments around the world to allocate more resources to fight the monkeypox epidemic.
Posted at 4:24 p.m.
International experts had met earlier in the day to discuss the need to avoid repeating the mistakes made when HIV arrived.
The Dr Meg Doherty, director of HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections programs at the World Health Organization, told reporters that an equitable approach is crucial to ensure tools are available not just in countries the wealthiest, but also in Africa, where monkeypox is traditionally present.
More than 19,000 cases of the disease have been reported in recent months in 78 countries, mostly among men who have sex with men. 803 of these cases have been recorded in Canada as of July 29.
Keletso Makofane, a public health researcher at Harvard University, called the global response “worse than the initial response to HIV”, saying there is already enough information about the virus to contain it.
Meanwhile, Professor Marina Klein, director of research in the division of infectious diseases and the service of chronic viral diseases at McGill University, argued that more studies were needed to understand the extent of transmission of disease.
This article was produced with the financial support of the Meta Fellowships and The Canadian Press for News.