Authorities in Democratic Republic of the Congo on Saturday began vaccinating against mpox, nearly two months after the disease outbreak that spread to several African countries and beyond was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation.
The 265,000 doses donated to by the European Union and the US were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been overstretched, struggling to contain the new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox.
Democratic Republic of the Congo, with about 30,000 suspected mpox cases and 859 deaths, accounts for more than 80% of all the cases and 99% of all the deaths reported in Africa this year.
A health worker attends to an mpox patient, at a treatment centre in Munigi (Moses Sawasawa/AP)
All of the country’s 26 provinces have recorded mpox cases.
Although most mpox infections and deaths recorded are in children under the age of 15, the doses being administered are only meant for adults and will be given to at-risk populations and frontline workers, health minister Roger Kamba said this week.
“Strategies have been put in place by the services in order to vaccinate all targeted personnel,” Muboyayi ChikayaI, the minister’s chief of staff, said as he kicked off the vaccination.
At least three million doses of the vaccine approved for use in children are expected from Japan in the coming days, Mr Kamba said.