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About 380,000 doses of Mpox vaccines have been promised by Western partners such as the European Union and the United States, he said. That’s less than 15% of the doses authorities have said are needed to end the Mpox outbreaks in Congo, the epicenter of the global health emergency.
Africa is witnessing a rapid increase in Mpox cases. Nearly 4,000 were reported in the past week. Their recovery from the deadly disease depends on the quick arrival of vaccines from the West. The most affected country is Congo.
Eighty-one deaths from Mpox were reported in Africa in the past week, bringing the total cases and deaths to 22,863 and 622, respectively, Dr. Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told an online briefing.
About 380,000 doses of Mpox vaccines have been promised by Western partners such as the European Union and the United States, he said. That’s less than 15% of the doses authorities have said are needed to end the Mpox outbreaks in Congo, the epicenter of the global health emergency.
Following Mpox outbreaks outside the African continent in 2022, wealthy countries quickly responded with vaccines and treatments from their stockpiles. However, only a few doses have reached Africa despite pleas from its governments.
At the earliest, the first batch of vaccine doses promised to support the new outbreaks in Congo will arrive on Sept. 1 after delays caused by documentation and emergency authorization issues, Kaseya said. The batch would include 50,000 doses promised by the U.S. government and 15,000 from vaccines alliance GAVI, said Dr. Ngashi Ngongo, the Africa CDC incidents manager on Mpox.
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Congo has also requested at least 2 million doses from Japan of vaccines that are particularly effective in protecting children, he said, with negotiations “quite advanced.”
The U.S. recently donated 10,000 doses of Mpox vaccines to Nigeria, where the disease has been common. It is the first known donation to Africa since the current outbreaks. Nigeria has recorded 40 Mpox cases this year, according to Nigeria’s CDC.
