Vaccination against mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo province most affected by the epidemic, South Kivu, began on Sunday the day after the official launch of the campaign in the country, AFP noted.
The highly anticipated start of vaccination operations in the Central African country, which concentrates 90% of cases of the disease previously called monkeypox, according to the WHO, was announced on Saturday with the injection of first doses into caregivers at the hospital in Goma, capital of North Kivu.
According to the Ministry of Health, at this stage it is not a question of “mass vaccination” but of targeting at-risk populations in the most affected areas: healthcare workers, sex workers, veterinarians, hunters, etc.
Mpox is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans but is also transmitted between humans, causing fever, muscle pain and skin lesions.
“I agree to take this vaccine to protect myself and others,” Cirhahongerwa Noella, a nurse, told the press, the first to receive the vaccine at Lwiro hospital, about fifty km from Bukavu, the capital. from South Kivu.
The DRC has recorded more than 30,000 cases of mpox and nearly 990 deaths since the start of the year, according to official figures. South Kivu, where the current epidemic was detected a year ago, according to health authorities, alone has more than 8,400 cases and 45 deaths.
The province is due to receive 200,000 of the 265,000 vaccines the country currently has on hand but has only received just under 30,000 at this point, according to provincial health authorities.
Vaccination in the DRC, the launch of which was initially planned for Wednesday, began with delay, in particular because of difficulties in transporting the precious vaccines in a country poor in infrastructure and four times the size of France.
To reach Bukavu, the doses which must be stored at a temperature of -20°C were first transported by plane from the capital Kinshasa to the east, before transiting by boat, then by helicopter.
The DRC, among the five poorest countries on the planet, received 265,000 vaccines last month donated by the European Union and the United States. These doses from the Danish laboratory Bavarian Nordic are currently only approved for use in adults.
The Congolese government is awaiting other donations and is holding discussions with Japan for the delivery of vaccines for use in children.
Mpox is currently present in 16 countries in Africa, according to the African Union health agency (Africa CDC).
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