DR Congo gets 50,000 mpox vaccine delivery from US

Jornalists work during the reception of a batch of MPOX vaccines donated by European Union at the tarmac of Kinshasa International Airport in the Nsele district of Kinshasa on Sept 5, 2024. [AFP]

Democratic Republic of Congo received on Tuesday 50,000 more vaccine doses from the United States to fight the country's mpox epidemic, adding to some 200,000 donated by the European Union.

The DRC is at the epicentre of the latest outbreak and has recorded more than 21,500 cases and over 700 deaths, according to the public health institute in charge of managing the epidemic in the country.

"The donation of 50,000 vaccines against mpox coming from the United States arrived today in the Democratic Republic of Congo," US ambassador to DRC Lucy Tamlyn said on X on Tuesday.

An additional 15,000 doses were delivered on the same plane from the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, the public health institute said.

On Sunday some 100,000 EU-donated vaccines arrived in DRC capital Kinshasa, the public health institute and Africa CDC confirmed.

DRC received its first EU-donated vaccine deliveries on Thursday.

This brings the total number of vaccines given to the DRC to 265,000.

The vaccines are manufactured by the Danish laboratory Bavarian Nordic.

It is the only vaccine approved in Europe and the United States and is only intended for adults.

Bavarian Nordic recently applied with the European Medicines Agency to extend the approval to children aged 12 to 17, the company said in a statement.

Another mpox vaccine, used on adults and children, is authorised in Japan.

DRC is currently in discussion with the country for a possible supply of these vaccines.

Some 62 per cent of mpox cases in the DRC are in children, as are four out of five deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control (CDC).

The WHO declared an international emergency over mpox on August 14, concerned by the surge in cases of the new Clade 1b strain in the DRC that spread to nearby countries.

Both the Clade 1b and Clade 1a strains are present in the DRC.

Formerly called monkeypox, the virus was discovered in 1958 in Denmark, in monkeys kept for research.

It was first discovered in humans in 1970 in what is now the DRC.

Mpox is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.

The disease causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.

In Africa, mpox is now present in at least 14 countries, including Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic, according to Africa CDC figures.