Authorities have announced that a vaccination campaign against mpox in Congo will commence on October 2, focusing initially on the three most affected provinces: Equateur, South Kivu, and Sankuru.
Cris Kacita Osako, coordinator of Congo’s Monkeypox Response Committee, confirmed that adults in these regions will be prioritized for vaccination.
This week, Congo received its first shipment of mpox vaccines in the capital, which is at the outbreak’s center. The initial 100,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine, produced by Bavarian Nordic and donated by the European Union through HERA, were followed by another 100,000 doses on Saturday. Despite these shipments, the 200,000 doses are only a fraction of the 3 million doses required to control the outbreaks in Congo, which accounts for 91% of the 5,549 confirmed cases and 643 deaths across the continent this year. The European Union has pledged to donate over 500,000 additional doses, although the delivery timeline remains uncertain.
The Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention, alongside the World Health Organization, has launched a continent-wide response plan, with emergency approval for the vaccine currently limiting its use to adults, especially those with close contact with infected individuals and sex workers.
The European Medicines Agency is reviewing data to potentially extend vaccine use to children aged 12 to 17 by the end of the month.
Peoplesmind
