First doses of mpox vaccine reach Congo, but a fraction of what's needed
The first batch of mpox vaccine arrived in Congo on Thursday, three weeks after the World Health Organization declared mpox outbreaks in 12 African countries a global emergency.
The first batch of mpox vaccine arrived in Congo’s capital on Thursday, the country’s authorities said, three weeks after the World Health Organization declared mpox outbreaks in 12 African countries a global emergency.
The 100,000 doses of the MVA-BN vaccine, manufactured by the Danish company Bavarian Nordic, have been donated by the European Union through HERA, the bloc’s agency for health emergencies. Another 100,000 are expected to be delivered on Saturday, the Congolese authorities said.
UNICEF is going to be in charge of the vaccination campaign in the most impacted provinces, Congo’s Health Minister Roger Kamba told reporters after the delivery of the vaccine. But it remained unclear when the vaccination drive would begin.
About 380,000 doses of mpox vaccines have been promised by Western partners such as the European Union and the United States, Dr. Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters last week. That is less than 15% of the 3 million doses authorities have said are needed to end the mpox outbreaks in Congo, the epicenter of the global health emergency.
Last week, the organization said there were more than 22,800 mpox cases and 622 deaths on the continent and that infections had jumped 200% in the last week. The majority of cases and deaths are in Congo, where the new mpox variant was first detected, and where most mpox infections are in children under 15.
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