The Republic of Congo (DRC), the country most affected by the smallpox epidemic, is expecting a first delivery of nearly 100,000 doses of vaccine on Thursday, September 5, the director general of the Congolese health agency (CDC) told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday. “We are very pleased with the arrival of this first batch of vaccines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” declared Jean Kaseya, specifying that“there are 99,100 doses,” who will arrive “At 12:10 pm at Kinshasa airport.”
“We thank the European Union, through the European Health Emergency Response Authority, for immediately responding to our call for solidarity aimed at ensuring access to the mpox vaccine in the affected countries of the African Union”he added.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, a large country in central Africa, 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 currently 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 as of August 27.
Highest level of global alert
The resurgence of mpox on the continent and the emergence of a new clade (1b) prompted the WHO to activate its highest level of global alert in mid-August. On August 30, the organization announced that around 230,000 doses of the MVA-BN vaccine, produced by the Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic, had been distributed. “Immediately available for shipment to affected regions”.
Spain (500,000 doses), France and Germany (100,000 doses) have also pledged 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 were donated by the United States.
