First 100,000 doses of mpox vaccine reach Democratic Republic of Congo

The first batch of mpox vaccine has arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital, the country’s authorities said.

It comes three weeks after the World Health Organisation (Who) declared mpox outbreaks in 12 African countries a global emergency.

The 100,000 doses of the MVA-BN vaccine, manufactured by the Danish company Bavarian Nordic, have been donated by the European Union through Hera, the bloc’s agency for health emergencies.

Another 100,000 are expected to be delivered on Saturday, authorities said.

Unicef is going to be in charge of the vaccination campaign in the most impacted provinces, health minister Roger Kamba told reporters after the delivery of the vaccine.

But it remained unclear when the vaccination drive would begin.

About 380,000 doses of mpox vaccines have been promised by Western partners such as the EU and the US, Dr Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters last week.

That is less than 15% of the three million doses authorities have said are needed to end the mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – the epicentre of the global health emergency.

Mpox, also known as monkeypox, had been spreading mostly undetected for years in Africa before the disease prompted the 2022 outbreak in more than 70 countries, Dr Dimie Ogoina, the chairman of Who’s mpox emergency committee told reporters last month.