Several hundred anti-MPOX vaccines have been administered since Tuesday, September 17 in Rwanda, as part of the first immunization campaign launched to try to stop the epidemic ravaging Africa, the Africa CDC, the health agency of the African Union, announced Thursday. “Vaccination started in Rwanda on September 17 and around 300 high-risk people have been vaccinated”Addis Asheber, spokesman for the Africa CDC, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
These first few hundred vaccines have “focused on seven districts (…) that share a border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo »Ngashi Ngongo, chief of staff and head of the agency’s executive office, said during a press conference. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, vaccinations will begin “the first week of October”Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa CDC, also indicated, warning: “MPox is not under control.”
The Africa CDC recorded 2,912 new cases, 374 new confirmed cases and 14 deaths on the continent in one week, bringing the total number of detected cases to 29,152, the number of confirmed cases to 6,105 and the number of deaths to 738. In Africa, the epidemic is currently present in fifteen countries.
The resurgence of mpox on the continent and the emergence of a new variant (clade 1b) prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to activate its highest level of global alert in mid-August. Clade 1b has been recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, according to the Africa CDC.
The MVA-BN vaccine, prequalified by the WHO
Mpox, formerly called monkeypox, is a viral disease that is transmitted from animals to humans but is also transmitted between humans and causes fever, muscle pain and skin lesions. So far, the European Union has delivered about 200,000 doses of vaccine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United States about 50,000. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has about 100 million inhabitants.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on September 13 that it had prequalified the MVA-BN vaccine, allowing specialized UN agencies such as the Vaccine Alliance and the United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF), but also governments to accelerate orders.
That “will help communities on the front lines of the emergency in Africa and beyond”“This vaccine, manufactured by Bavaria Nordic, can be administered to people over 18 years of age as a two-dose injection four weeks apart,” said Yukiko Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines and Health Products.
Available data show that a single-dose MVA-BN vaccine administered before exposure is estimated to be 76% effective in protecting people against MPOX, while the two-dose regimen is estimated to be 82% effective, the study organization notes, noting that post-exposure vaccination is less effective than pre-exposure vaccination.
