Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed Thursday the delivery of 99,000 doses of the mpox vaccine — roughly the first half of a donation provided by the European Union — designed to help the country contain an outbreak of the virus that the World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency.
DRC Health Minister Samuel-Rodger Kamba took delivery of the shipment at the airport outside the capital, Kinshasa, on Thursday, alongside Laurent Muschel, the European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority chief. An additional 101,000 doses are expected on Saturday.
Kamba thanked the EU for the donation, saying it gives the country the capacity to contain the virus.
“My initial reaction on the spot is one of joy and satisfaction at the cooperation we have with the European Union," he said.
WHO reports that more than 18,000 suspected cases of mpox, including 629 deaths, have been reported this year in the DRC, the epicenter of the crisis. The U.N. health agency reports that four out of five deaths have been children.
The DRC is expected to formally begin its vaccine drive early next month.
The EU said in a statement it made this initial donation of more than 200,000 vaccines in cooperation with the Bavarian Nordic pharmaceutical company. The bloc said an additional 351,500 doses will be donated to the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the coming days for distribution in the nations that need it.
WHO said cases of mpox have been reported in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, and Uganda.
The agency reports that mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is a viral infection that can spread between people mainly through close contact and occasionally from the environment to people via objects and surfaces that have been touched by an infected person. Symptoms commonly include a rash or lesions, fever and swollen glands.
While most cases clear up on their own, some people can develop severe symptoms, complications or die.
WHO reports that two distinct clades of the mpox virus have been identified: Clade I previously known as the Congo Basin clade, and Clade II, the former West African clade.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
