The Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of an mpox outbreak, received its first shipment of vaccines on Thursday, with nearly half of the 200,000 doses donated by the European Union arriving. The vaccines, which were flown in from Copenhagen, are set to be stored and the vaccination campaign is expected to begin by the end of the month. Laurent Muschel, head of the EU’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), and Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba were present at Kinshasa airport to oversee the arrival of 99,100 doses.
The remaining doses of the EU’s donation are scheduled to arrive in Kinshasa on Saturday. DRC has reported over 19,000 cases and more than 650 deaths from mpox, a virus transmitted by infected animals and through close human contact. The outbreak has prompted the World Health Organization to declare an international emergency due to the rapid spread of the new Clade 1b strain.
Muschel highlighted the solidarity between the European Union and Africa and praised the rapid response to the crisis. The vaccines, produced by Danish pharmaceutical laboratory Bavarian Nordic, are the only ones approved in Europe and the United States and are intended solely for adults. The European Union and its member states will also provide a total of 560,000 doses to the DRC and other affected countries. Mpox is now present in 13 African countries, including Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, and the Central African Republic, according to the Africa CDC.
