Mpox doses to start to arrive in Congo
September 5, 2024
Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo were expecting the arrival of the first consignment of mpox vaccines on Thursday.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it expected more than 99,000 doses on Thursday.
A cargo plane packed with the vaccines was to leave the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on Wednesday evening and arrive at Kinshasa International Airport on Thursday at 1100 UTC/GMT.
Another flight carrying the rest of the jabs — with Congo expecting a delivery of 200,000 doses this week in total — is scheduled to arrive before the end of the week, according to the Africa CDC.
At a press conference in Geneva earlier Wednesday, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed that mpox shots were due to arrive in Congo.
They are manufactured by Danish vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic and donated by the European Union.
WHO declares global health emergency over spread of deadly strain
In August, the World Health Organization declared mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, a global health emergency following an outbreak of the viral infection in Congo.
Congo has reported more than 18,000 suspected cases of mpox so far, with children accounting for half of the total cases reported, according to the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF.
Some 629 people have died, the majority of them children, according to UNICEF.
WHO previously declared the spread of mpox a global health emergency in July 2022 and ended that declaration in 2023. A surge in infection this time has raised concerns because the new strain is more deadly than the one in 2022.
rm/sms (Reuters, AFP)