United States: Democratic Republic of the Congo received its first shipment of mpox vaccines on Thursday; however, authorities estimate that more than 10 million doses are required.
The announcement was made at a time when the WHO had flagged the geographical expansion of the previously known as monkeypox virus and action was imperative across the continent to stem an outbreak.
As reported by The Guardian, it’s about 95,000 doses of Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine have been flown to DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa as part of the European Union donation programme, with 100,000 more being sent on Saturday.
Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the regional health authority Africa CDC said that efforts must be made to prevent the virus to spread to other states.
“The outbreak is really moving [fast],” said Kaseya. “We really need to stop it really quickly.” Almost 25,000 cases have been reported through the region this year, with less than 6,000 of those confirmed through testing and 643 deaths, Africa CDC data reveals. Infection rate is at 104% of last year with cases detected far higher than last year.
Nonetheless, Kaseya said they were on the rise in other areas while the DRC remained the most affected with cases. He noted that he is ‘really concerned’ with the case reported of mpox in a seven-year-old child in Guinea which could be the first one of the new clade Ib variant in West Africa. The sequencing tests remain still under way.
Clade Ib is a newly erupted variant of the virus detected in eastern DRC which seems to be transmitted from person to person and responsible for the sharp rise in numbers. The illness, which is now present in neighboring countries, has been termed a Public Health Emergency by the world body W.H.O and African health organizations. Officials said a response plan is likely to cost nearly USD 600 million (£455m
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