The launch of vaccination against the mpox virus is scheduled for October 2 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the center of the current epidemic where more than 24,000 infections have been recorded since January, the Congolese Public Health Institute announced on Thursday.
The vaccination campaign should last ten days, said Dr.r Adelard Lofungola, head of the team responsible for organizing the response to the epidemic.
“We will first focus on medical personnel, children, and target audiences” such as sex workers, he continued.
Aside from the logistical challenges of transporting the precious doses, which must be kept at a temperature of -20°C across a vast territory with little infrastructure, health authorities will also have to convince some “communities to avoid self-medication,” Dr.r Lofungola.
By far the most affected country in the world, the DRC has recorded 24,035 cases of MPOX and 789 deaths linked to the disease since the start of the year, according to the latest official figures.
The country, one of the world’s poorest, recently received 265,000 vaccines donated by the European Union and the United States and manufactured by the Danish laboratory Bavarian Nordic.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also indicated that it had signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Japan on Wednesday for the delivery of 3 to 5 million vaccines. The Japanese vaccine is used on children.
“We hope that this vaccine for children will arrive” before October 2, hoped Dr.r Adelard Lofungola, adding that two first deaths were reported in recent days in the relatively unaffected province of North Kivu (east).
“A 14-day-old newborn and an 8-year-old child,” said Dr.r Lofungola, however, assuring that so far “the situation is under control at the local level.”
The resurgence of COPD in Africa prompted the WHO to issue its highest level of global alert in mid-August.
The virus is now present in 14 countries on the continent including Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic, according to the African Union’s health agency.