Indonesia to Share 5,000 Mpox Vaccines with African Countries
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3 September 2024 22:27 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said Indonesia's plan to share 5,000 monkeypox or Mpox vaccines with African countries is a form of diplomacy.
“And we have more vaccines, 1,600 from Denmark. So, we have sufficient vaccines and it’s good for diplomacy, we are helping our friends in Africa. We can purchase more in case we require so,” Budi said after a Panel Discussion of the Indonesia-Africa Forum (IAF) in Nusa Dua, Bali on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, as quoted by Antara.
Budi said he has reached several health agreements with the Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa-CDC), Jean Kaseya. One of the agreements concerns the grant for a 5,000 Mpox vaccine purchased from Japan.
Indonesia, the minister said, is unable to generate Mpox vaccine. Only Japan and Denmark currently have the ability to produce the Mpox vaccine. On the other hand, learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, developing countries are placed at the end of the list for vaccines.
“But we promised Africa-CDC, our colleague, that we would get those 10,000 vaccines. We will divide them into two. As many as 5,000 vaccines we will deliver to our friends in Africa, and half will be stored for Indonesian people,” he said.
Additionally, Indonesia will donate 30 Molecular Rapid Test (TCM) machines equipped with 12,000 reagents and provide tecovirimat drugs for 200 people.
In addition to the agreement with Africa-CDC, Minister of Health Budi also held bilateral meetings with Sudan and Zimbabwe to help develop disease surveillance and vaccine production capabilities.
ANTARA
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