The Republic of Congo (DRC), the country most affected by the MPOX epidemic, is expecting a first delivery of nearly 100,000 doses of vaccines on Thursday, September 5, the director general of the African Union Health Agency (Africa CDC) announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday. “We are very pleased with the arrival of this first batch of vaccines in the DRC,” said Jean Kaseya, specifying that“It’s 99,100 doses,” who will arrive “at 12:10 at Kinshasa airport.”
“We thank the European Union, through the European Health Emergency Response Authority, for immediately responding to our call for solidarity to ensure access to the MPOX vaccine in the affected countries of the African Union”he added.
A vast country in Central Africa, the DRC has recorded more than 17,500 cases and 629 deaths since the beginning of the year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In Africa, the epidemic is now present in thirteen countries, including Burundi (796 cases), Congo-Brazzaville (162 cases) and the Central African Republic (45 cases), according to figures from the Africa CDC dated August 27.
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Highest level of global alert
The resurgence of MPOX on the continent and the emergence of a new clade (1b) prompted the WHO to trigger its highest level of global alert in mid-August. On August 30, the organization announced that approximately 230,000 doses of the MVA-BN vaccine, produced by the Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic, were “immediately available for dispatch to affected areas”.
Spain (500,000 doses), France and Germany (100,000 doses) have also promised to send vaccines to African countries. The WHO office in Africa announced at the end of August the delivery of 10,000 doses of vaccines to Nigeria, which thus became the first African country to receive – outside of clinical trials – doses to respond to the epidemic. These Bavarian Nordic vaccines had been donated by the United States.
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