Vaccination against mpox began in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Saturday, nearly two months after the outbreak was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation, PBS News reported.
The European Union and the United States donated 265,000 doses to the country. The doses have now been delivered to the eastern town of Goma in North Kivu province, as hospitals and health workers are overwhelmed trying to contain the spread of a new and possibly more contagious strain of mpox.
Congo recorded about 30,000 suspected mpox cases and 859 deaths. The country accounts for more than 80 per cent of all cases and 99 per cent of all deaths reported in Africa this year. In all 26 provinces of this central African country, mpox cases have been reported.
In the coming days, at least 3 million doses of vaccine approved for use in children are expected to be delivered from Japan, as donated doses are only for adults and to be given to at-risk groups and frontline workers. Meanwhile, the majority of mpox infections and deaths occur in children under the age of 15, according to Health Minister Roger Kamba.
The mpox virus remained virtually undetectable in Africa for years before the disease triggered a global outbreak in 2022. However, unlike the 2022 global outbreak, largely centred among gay and bisexual men, mpox is now spreading sexually in Africa, as well as through close contact between children, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups, said the chair of WHO’s emergency committee on mpox.
More than 34,000 suspected cases and 866 deaths from the virus have occurred in 16 countries in Africa this year. This is a 200 per cent increase over the same period last year, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
The continent of 1.4 billion people has secured only 5.9 million doses of mpox vaccines, expected to reach between October and December.
