more than 50,000 people vaccinated in DR Congo and Rwanda

Friday 01st November 2024 04:59 PM

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that more than 50,000 people have been vaccinated against the mpox outbreak in Rwanda and DR Congo. The head of the organization warned that the virus was still not under control, specifying that to avoid the risk of a pandemic, nearly six million doses of vaccines should be available by the end of the year. year.

As the virus rages in Africa, more than 50,000 people have so far been vaccinated against mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda “thanks to donations from the United States and the European Commission”, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, during a press conference in Geneva, Friday 1^is November.

The African Union health agency warned Thursday that the mpox epidemic was “still not under control” and called for mobilization to avoid a “more serious pandemic” than Covid-19. The majority of deaths were recorded in the DRC, the epicenter of the epidemic, which launched a vaccination campaign at the beginning of October.

Furthermore, the Director General of the WHO recalled that the organization and its partners (Africa CDC, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations Cepi, the Gavi Vaccine Alliance and Unicef) have created ” an access and allocation mechanism (called AMM) to promote equitable and rapid access to vaccines against mpox”.

1,000 deaths in Africa