Mpox, COVID, and dengue plagues pose triple threat to the region
As health officials grapple with a surge in COVID-19 transmissions, the potential spread of dengue following Hurricane Beryl, and the imminent threat of Mpox, one medical doctor has cautioned that being upfront and truthful is crucial to ensure that Jamaicans heed the warnings that are necessary to stave off a public health crisis.
Chairman of the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, Dr. Wayne West, noted that many Jamaicans have lost trust in public officials based on the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There was a lot of dishonesty. The claim that the vaccines were effective was not true because people were vaccinated and boosted and kept getting COVID. The claim that you got a less severe type of COVID because you were vaccinated is really a lot of computer simulation; it’s not a real-world experience. In other words, in the real world, places like Nigeria, which were poorly vaccinated, had fewer deaths than places like the USA and the UK and many European countries,” said Dr. West, who monitored data from the Johns Hopkins University during the height of the global pandemic.
Despite claims that the vaccine is effective, several high-profile individuals globally got COVID several times after being vaccinated. This includes US President Joe Biden, who tested positive three times for COVID-19 in two years despite being fully vaccinated and boosted. Several families have filed lawsuits against vaccine makers after their relatives either died or experienced medical complications after taking the vaccine. In May this year, it was announced that the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID vaccine was being withdrawn. The vaccine maker admitted that the vaccine was found to have caused a rare blood clot in some cases.
“So the authorities really need to be honest. They need to say what the vaccines really can do, tell people the side effects of the vaccines, and give people the options,” said Dr. West.
The world is now focusing its attention on halting the spread of mpox (formerly monkeypox), a viral infection that causes lesions and flu-like symptoms. In July 2022, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) following an outbreak of the clade 2b strain of mpox, which mostly affected gay and bisexual men. The alarm was lifted in May 2023. The WHO recently reinstated mpox status as a PHEIC due to an outbreak in Africa. WHO said a deadlier strain of the virus, clade Ib, had reached four previously unaffected countries in Africa. This strain had previously been contained to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Sweden has since announced the first clade I case outside of Africa.
There have been more than 17,000 mpox cases and more than 500 deaths since the beginning of the year. These have been reported in 13 countries in Africa, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which classifies the outbreak as a “very high-risk event.”
The Ministry of Health & Wellness said that while no cases of mpox have been reported locally, members of the public should take the necessary precautions to safeguard themselves from the disease.
“Safe sexual practices along with practicing physical distancing, mask-wearing, and frequent hand sanitization will reduce the likelihood of transmission of the mpox virus,” the MOHW said in a press release.
“Persons must report to the health department if fever and rash occur following recent international travel or close contact with persons who travelled within the preceding three weeks. Healthcare workers are also to have a heightened sense of awareness of this illness and report suspected cases to the parish health department,” said Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor McKenzie.
Vaccines will be made available for Africa to deal with the mpox outbreak. The United States has promised 50,000 vaccine doses for DRC, while Japan, on Monday, agreed to send 3.5 million doses, “only for children,” a medical source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP. The source said that DRC “plans to vaccinate four million people, including 3.5 million children.” Pledges to send vaccines have also been made by the European Union and Japan.
Dr. West noted that vaccines are important to treat viral conditions like COVID and mpox. However, he has observed that new viruses are coming about, and then vaccines are immediately developed to deal with them. Citizens should not be blinded to the reality that this mass production of vaccines stands to also benefit pharmaceutical companies and others with ulterior motives.
“I don’t think we should trust people blindly. There is a lot of money to be made in vaccines. There are people who have an agenda to depopulate the world; there is no question about that,” said the doctor.
“With regards to mpox, we need to be careful; we need to do research; we need to keep our eyes wide open because there are people who have ulterior motives,” Dr. West said.
The church, he said, should be vigilante and always seek the truth, knowing that Satan is an agent of lies. He said church leaders should not be afraid to critically analyse what is presented by the authorities and ask questions.
“The churches must not go along with what the authorities say just because the authorities said it. The reason why we cannot do that is because the authorities have shown themselves to be untrustworthy. If they were trustworthy, then we could go along with them,” he said matter of factly.
He agrees with the general recommendation for householders to get rid of mosquito breeding sites and other instructions given by the MOHW to reduce dengue cases islandwide.
The MOHW said surveillance data shows a high transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus among the population. In July, the country recorded 176 COVID-19 cases, which represents a 16 percent increase from the 152 recorded in June. Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Catherine, and St. James have recorded the highest number of cases so far. From January 1 to August 8, a total of 13 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Jamaica.
In 1989, the first monkeypox-related patent was filed, DK198901518 (monkeypox was first discovered by Danish virologist Preben von Magnus), for treating monkeypox virus infection with dimethylol cyclobutylpurine and pyrimidine. Subsequently, monkeypox-related patents were published worldwide. In 2004, the number of monkeypox-related patents doubled and continued to rise annually. However, the number of published monkeypox-related patents declined significantly from 2014 to 2015 and did not return to a stable state until 2016.