Congolese authorities announced Saturday that vaccination against M.P.O.X. started.
The 265,000 doses of vaccines donated to Congo by the European Union and the United States were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers are overburdened and the new, It is struggling to contain the potentially more contagious mpox strain. In Congo, approximately 30,000 suspected chickenpox cases and 859 deaths have been reported in Africa this year, accounting for more than 80% of all cases and 99% of deaths. All 26 states in Central Africa have recorded mpox cases. A doctor administered the mpox vaccine during the launch of a vaccination campaign at Goma General Hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Saturday. Photo: AFP
Most of the mpox infections and deaths recorded in Congo are in children under the age of 15, but the doses being administered are only intended for adults and are aimed at those at risk and front-line workers. will be administered, Health Minister Roger Kamba said this week.
“Strategies are being put in place by the authorities to vaccinate all eligible people,” Chief of Staff to the Minister Mboyai Chikaya said at the start of the vaccination drive.
Kamba said at least three million doses of vaccines approved for use in children are expected to be delivered by Japan in the coming days.
MPOX, also known as monkeypox, spread largely undetected in Africa for years until the disease sparked a global pandemic in 2022. While rich countries responded quickly with stockpiled vaccines, Africa received only a few doses despite government requests.
