The initial shipment of mpox vaccine has reached Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, according to authorities in the country. The World Health Organization recently declared mpox outbreaks in 12 African nations a global emergency, making this delivery significant. The MVA-BN vaccine, produced by Danish company Bavarian Nordic, consists of 100,000 doses donated by the European Union through HERA, the bloc’s health emergency agency. An additional 100,000 doses are anticipated to arrive on Saturday, as announced by Congolese officials.
UNICEF has been designated to oversee the vaccination campaign in the most severely affected provinces, revealed Congo’s Health Minister Roger Kamba following the vaccine’s arrival. However, the exact commencement date for the vaccination initiative remains uncertain. Dr. Jean Kaseya, the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stated that Western partners like the European Union and the United States have pledged approximately 380,000 doses of the mpox vaccine. Yet, this falls short of the 3 million doses deemed necessary to halt the mpox outbreaks in Congo, the focal point of the global health crisis.
Monkeypox, also referred to as mpox, had been spreading largely unnoticed in Africa for years until it triggered an outbreak in more than 70 countries in 2022. Dr. Dimie Ogoina, the chair of WHO’s mpox emergency committee, revealed this information to reporters in the past month.