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By Rachel Dobkin
Weekend Reporter
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The first batch of 100,000 doses of the mpox vaccine has reached the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but millions are needed to end outbreaks of the virus.
The MCA-BN vaccine manufactured by the Danish company Bavarian Nordic was donated by the European Union's (EU) agency for health emergencies, HERA, and arrived in Congo's capital, Kinshasa on Thursday.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will head a campaign for vaccinations in the provinces that have been most impacted by mpox, Congo's Health Minister Roger Kamba told reporters following the delivery of the vaccine doses.
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Western partners including the EU and the United States have pledged to deliver roughly 380,000 doses of the vaccine to Congo, Dr. Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters last week. Another 100,000 doses are set to be delivered on Saturday, according to Congolese authorities.
However, it will not be enough to stop the spread of mpox. The 380,000 promised doses are less than 15 percent of the 3 million doses authorities have said are needed to end the mpox outbreaks in Congo.
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Congo is the epicenter of what the World Health Organization (WHO) has called a global emergency. On Aug. 14, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) after an uptick of mpox cases in Congo and a growing number of African countries.
As of Aug. 8, 15 African countries reported mpox outbreaks, according to WHO. In total, there have been over 2,000 confirmed cases of the virus and 13 deaths so far this year, WHO said in an August 8 news release.
Tedros previously declared mpox a global emergency back in July 2022 when an outbreak of the virus reached over 70 countries, including the U.S., mostly affecting gay and bisexual men. Before this global outbreak, mpox went mostly undetected in Africa for years, Dr. Dimie Ogoina, the chair of WHO's mpox emergency committee, told reporters last month.
While cases of mpox in the U.S. have drastically dropped after reaching a peak the summer of 2022, the virus is still present. On Aug. 5, 2022, there were 490 mpox cases that day with a 7-day average of 465 cases. This past Aug. 5, there were only 7 cases with a 7-day average of 6 cases.
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a disease caused by a virus in the same family as the virus that causes smallpox. The virus spreads through close contact with an infected person or animal or through materials that an infected person has been in contact with like blankets or clothes. People with mpox often get a rash, along with other symptoms such as fever and swollen lymph nodes.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
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