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Rabat – Rwanda kicked off its first vaccination campaign against monkeypox (mpox), administering hundreds of doses since September 17 in response to a rising number of urgent cases across Africa.
The initial vaccinations are concentrated in 7 districts along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as detailed by Ngashi Ngongo, the agency’s chief of staff.
Addis Asheber, a spokesperson for the Africa CDC, confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that nearly 300 high-risk individuals have already received the mpox vaccine.
Jean Kaseya, the agency’s director-general, announced that vaccinations will begin in the DRC in the first week of October, highlighting the urgency of the situation by stating, “Mpox is not under control.”
Rising mpox cases prompt global health response
In just one week, the Africa CDC reported 2,912 potential new mpox cases, including 374 confirmed cases and 14 deaths.
This raises the continent’s totals to 29,152 detected cases, 6,105 confirmed cases, and 738 deaths, with the outbreak now impacting 15 African countries.
Additionally, on September 12, Morocco’s Ministry of Health confirmed its first mpox case in Marrakech, marking the country’s entry into the ongoing global outbreak.
The resurgence of mpox, along with the emergence of a new variant (clade 1b), led the World Health Organization (WHO) to issue its highest global alert level in mid-August.
In response to the situation, the European Union has delivered around 200,000 vaccine doses to the DRC, while the United States has contributed approximately 50,000 doses. With a population nearing 100 million, the DRC faces alarming risk from this outbreak.
On September 17, Gavi, the international organization managing the Vaccine Alliance, and Bavarian Nordic, the maker of the mpox vaccine, announced an agreement to supply 500,000 doses to African countries facing an ongoing epidemic.
The MVA-BN vaccine, which received World Health Organization prequalification on September 13, will be provided by Bavarian Nordic while awaiting a supply agreement with UNICEF, Gavi’s distribution partner.
This vaccine is administered in two doses, four weeks apart, for individuals over 18. Research indicates that a single pre-exposure dose has an efficacy of about 76% against mpox, while the complete two-dose regimen increases efficacy to around 82%.
Mpox is a viral disease that can spread from animals to humans as well as between people, causing symptoms such as fever, muscle pain, and skin lesions.
