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The Democratic Republic of Congo expects to receive its first delivery of mpox vaccine doses on Thursday and a second delivery on Saturday, the head of the country’s mpox outbreak response said on Wednesday.
The Democratic Republic of Congo expects to receive its first delivery of mpox vaccine doses on Thursday and a second delivery on Saturday, the head of the country’s mpox outbreak response said on Wednesday. Congo has been the epicentre of the Mpox outbreak that the World Health Organization declared to be a global public health emergency last month. The efforts to curb the spread of the disease have been hampered by a lack of vaccines.
The vaccine doses’ arrival would help to address a huge inequity that left African countries with no access to the two shots used in a 2022 global Mpox outbreak, while they were widely available in Europe and the United States. Washington and Brussels have pledged tens of thousands of doses of a vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic and said they could be delivered soon.
Congo hoped to start the first wave of vaccination on Oct. 8, but this would depend on it receiving vaccines this week stated Cris Kacita the head of Congo’s Mpox response team. Health authorities face a steep challenge launching the vital campaign across a tropical country the size of Western Europe. The doses must be kept at -90 degrees Celsius (-130°F), and communities can be wary of participating.
The vaccine will not be distributed as soon as it is received, Kacita said, explaining why it would take around a month from delivery to launch the campaign. The local officials need to communicate so that the population accepts the vaccination, adding that the six targeted provinces can store the doses at the required temperature.
The World Health Organization’s acting director of epidemic and pandemic prevention, Maria Van Kerkhove, said this was the agency’s key focus as it supported Congo’s response. Dose numbers are still limited, she said, so at first vaccinations will be focused on the contacts of known cases.
Children are at high risk from Mpox, but Bavarian Nordic’s shot is not licensed for children. However, van Kerkhove said the WHO recommends its use in outbreaks for children when the benefits outweigh the risks, and this is currently under discussion in Congo.
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Mpox typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions and can kill. There were 19,710 suspected cases of Mpox reported since the start of the year in Congo by Aug. 31, according to the health ministry. Of those, 5,041 were confirmed and 655 were fatal. It spreads through close contact, including sexual contact.
Congo’s health minister Roger Kamba said handwashing and disinfecting furniture were also important to stop the spread of mpox.
