As mpox continues to spread in Africa, Congolese authorities said Thursday that the first batch of vaccines have arrived in that country’s capital.

The shipment comes three weeks after the World Health Organization declared mpox outbreaks in 12 African countries a global health emergency.

The 100,000 doses of Jynneos vaccine were donated by the European Union, the Associated Press reported. Another 100,000 doses are expected to be delivered on Saturday, Congolese authorities added.

UNICEF will spearhead the vaccination campaign, Congo’s Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba told reporters after the delivery of the vaccine doses, the AP reported. But it wasn’t clear exactly when a vaccination drive would begin.

About 380,000 doses of mpox vaccines have been promised by Western partners such as the European Union and the United States, Dr. Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters last week.

“These vaccines are vital in safeguarding our health workers and vulnerable populations, and in curbing the spread of mpox,” Kaseya said Thursday, the AP reported.

Still, those 100,000 doses fall far short of the 3 million doses authorities have said are needed to end the mpox outbreaks in the Congo.

Mercy Muthee Laker, the Congo representative for the Red Cross and Red Crescent aid organization, praised the Congolese government for getting vaccines, but noted the doses promised “were quite few compared to the need that we see on the ground.”

Since the start of 2024, Congo has been the epicenter of the outbreak, reporting more than 4,900 confirmed mpox cases and over 629 deaths, the AP reported.

Thursday’s vaccine shipment follows the WHO’s recent launch of a six-month plan to quell its spread.

“The mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries can be controlled, and can be stopped,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news release announcing the plan.

“Doing so requires a comprehensive and coordinated plan of action between international agencies and national and local partners, civil society, researchers and manufacturers, and our Member States,” he added.

What is included in the new battle blueprint? Increasing staffing in affected countries and boosting surveillance, prevention and response efforts are the keystones of the new plan.

Other African countries have not been spared in the ongoing outbreak: According to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new outbreak has led to more than 21,300 confirmed and presumed mpox cases and 590 deaths in at least 12 countries, some of which have never been affected by the disease before.

The newly spotted strain did surface outside of Africa for the first time last month, when Sweden reported a case of mpox in a person who had traveled to the Congo.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert in early August that advised health care providers to be on the lookout for the new mpox strain in patients who have recently been in the Congo or any neighboring country (Angola, Burundi, Central Africa).

Still, “due to the limited number of travelers and lack of direct commercial flights from [Congo] or its neighboring countries to the United States, the risk of clade I mpox importation to the United States is considered to be very low,” the CDC added at the time.

This is the second time in three years the WHO has designated an mpox outbreak a global health emergency.

In July 2022, an outbreak that originated in Africa spread worldwide, affecting nearly 100,000 people, primarily gay and bisexual men, across 116 countries and killing about 200 people, the New York Times reported.

What’s worrying in the new outbreak is that the death rate linked to the new strain of the disease appears higher: About 3 percent of those infected have died, instead of the 0.2 percent observed in the 2022 outbreak.

Vaccination plus behavioral change among gay and bisexual men, the group most affected in the United States in the 2022 outbreak, has caused U.S. cases of mpox to fall from more than 30,000 in 2022 to 1,700 in 2023.

But the virus is changing: Scientists discovered in 2023 that mpox has gained mutations allowing it to spread more easily between people. Sexual transmission, often through heterosexual prostitution, is a main conduit for infection in Africa.

Dr. Nicole Lurie is executive director for preparedness and response at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a nonprofit that finances vaccine development.

Speaking to the Times, she said, “this outbreak has been smoldering for quite a long time, and we continually have missed opportunities to shut it down. I’m really glad that everybody is now paying attention and focusing their efforts on this.”

More information

Find out more about mpox at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCE: Associated Press; WHO, news release, Aug. 26, 2024; New York Times

Source: HealthDay