The first shipment of MPOX vaccines to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is expected on Thursday, with the country by far worst-hit by the outbreak set to receive a total of 200,000 doses this week.
“We are very happy with the arrival of this first batch of vaccines in the DRC. These are 99,100 doses that will arrive tomorrow, Thursday, September 5,” the director general of the African Union health agency (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya, told AFP on Wednesday.
The first shipment of the precious vaccines is due to arrive in the Congolese capital Kinshasa at 11:10 GMT on a plane from Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. The second part of the delivery is due to arrive on another flight scheduled before the end of the week.
The WHO announced last week the arrival of vaccines in the DRC “in the coming days”.
The Africa CDC confirmed that these first doses come from the Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic. The WHO had indicated in late August that approximately 230,000 doses of the European manufacturer’s MVA-BN vaccine were “immediately available for shipment to regions affected” by the virus.
The aid to the country, one of the poorest in the world, was released by the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), created in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the WHO in a message posted on X, the Congolese government plans to begin the deployment of vaccines as early as the weekend.
The DRC, a vast country in central Africa, has recorded more than 19,000 cases and more than 650 deaths since the beginning of the year, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health. More than 5,000 cases have been recorded in the east of the country, according to the WHO. And 62% of infections are among children, according to the Africa CDC.
“Health war”
According to UNICEF, thousands of children in the DRC and neighbouring countries are at serious risk of contracting the disease, as cases caused by the new, “potentially more transmissible” variant (clade 1b) of the virus continue to increase.
In the DRC, two subgroups of mpox circulate: clade 1a, in the west of the country, and clade 1b, in the east.
The number of reported cases due to clade 1b has been increasing rapidly over the past several weeks, according to the WHO, but “relatively few deaths have been reported.”
On Tuesday, the Congolese Minister of Health again called, in a message posted on X, for compliance with barrier gestures: “We are in a health war against mpox. To face this disease, we need you,” insisted Samuel-Roger Kamba.
The resurgence of the disease on the continent and the emergence of a new variant prompted the WHO last month to trigger its highest level of global alert. The United States, Japan, but also Spain, France and Germany have promised vaccines to African countries.
The epidemic is present in thirteen countries on the continent including Burundi (796 cases), Congo-Brazzaville (162 cases) and the Central African Republic (45 cases), according to the latest figures from the Africa CDC dated August 27.
Guinea announced on Wednesday that it had detected its first case.
The WHO office in Africa had already announced at the end of August the delivery of 10,000 doses of vaccines to Nigeria, thus becoming 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.
Formerly called monkeypox, MPOX spreads from animals to humans but is also transmitted between humans. The disease first manifests as a high fever and quickly progresses to a rash, with the formation of scabs.