KISHASHA, DRC — Delivery of the first doses of mpox vaccines to treat the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo will not come to fruition this week as previously expected, officials announced on Monday.
Cris Kacita, who heads of the country’s mpox response team, told Reuters the shipments would not be received this week, adding “There are still several processes to follow.”
Kacita said before the doses could be delivered, the Congolese Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority would need guidance from Bavarian Nordic, the vaccine manufacturer.
Last week, Congo’s health minister said the would receive doses of the vaccine from the United States. The DRC has the highest mpox infection rate of any African country. Mpox has been confirmed in at east 12 African nations.
According to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the DRC, 18,910 mpox cases have been recorded in 2024, and 17,794 of those cases were.
A new variant of mpox has been blamed for the latest outbreak in Congo, prompting the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency. There are two variants of mpox, clade I and clade II. Clade I usually is more likely to cause severe illness or death than Clade II.
Though African countries were most impacted by the global mpox outbreak in 2022, they didn’t have access to the vaccines that were easily accessible in the United States and United Kingdom.
According to the U.S. CDC, more than 27,000 suspected mpox cases and more than 1,300 mpox-related deaths have been reported in the DRC since January 2023.
More about the mpox outbreak in Africa and wait for vaccine shipments.
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