Kinshasa: DRC receives first doses of Mpox vaccines

The Congolese heath minister on Thursday received a first batch of nearly 100,000 doses of Mpox vaccines. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this is a donation from European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA). The Congolese government is expecting at least 200,000 more vaccines next Saturday as it plans to deploy the vaccines this weekend. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The plane carrying the doses left the Danish capital on Wednesday evening and landed this Thursday at N’djili airport in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital.

The approximately 100,000 doses of this vaccine will be kept in the warehouses of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), pending approval of the government’s vaccination plan.

According to the Congolese Minister of Health, Roger Kamba, these vaccines are of very good quality.

“It is an Mpox vaccine. You know that it is an expensive and useful vaccine that helped stop the first circulation of Mpox, particularly in Europe and the United States. That is why we were fighting to get doses,” he said after receiving these vaccines.

According to Grant Leaity, UNICEF Representative in Congo, children are not yet concerned by these vaccines.

“This batch of vaccines is currently approved for adults. We are waiting for the arrival of other vaccines specifically for children of all ages,” he said.

According to planning, 100,000 other doses of vaccines will be added to the first batch next Saturday. Thus, a total of 200,000 doses will have to be distributed in the provinces primarily affected by the monkeypox epidemic.

“These vaccines are essential to protect our health workers and vulnerable populations, and to curb the spread of Mpox. We are fully committed to leaving no one behind in our mission to protect our populations and control this epidemic,” said Dr Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa CDC, the African Union Health Agency.

“Receiving these vaccines is a critical step in our fight against Mpox. Our commitment is to ensure the health of our population, especially our children, who are the most vulnerable. We will work closely with our partners to limit the spread of this disease and ensure a healthy future for all Congolese.”

The WHO had indicated at the end of August that approximately 230,000 doses of the MVA-BN vaccine, produced by the Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic, were “immediately available to be sent to the regions affected” by the Mpox virus.

The African branch of the WHO had also announced at the end of August the delivery of 10,000 doses of vaccines to Nigeria, thus becoming the first African country to receive – outside of clinical trials – doses to respond to the epidemic. These Bavarian Nordic vaccines had been donated by the United States.

“WHO is working with its partners to coordinate requests for vaccines, share information on available doses and ensure that these doses are sent to areas where they can help control the epidemic,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO.

“But vaccines alone will not stop these epidemics.”

In addition, the WHO indicates that it has helped Kinshasa and other countries to set up the necessary cold chain systems, to support communication campaigns aimed at providing information on vaccination and to combat misinformation.

The DRC has recorded more than 19,000 cases and more than 650 deaths since the beginning of the year, according to the latest figures from the Congolese Ministry of Health. More than 5,000 cases have been recorded in the east of the country, according to the WHO.

More than half of the confirmed cases of contamination concern children. Two subgroups of Mpox circulate in the DRC: clade 1a, in western Congo and clade 1b, in the east.