Rwanda has launched a vaccination campaign against mpox using 1,000 vaccine doses obtained from Nigeria, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) announced Thursday.
The vaccination effort, which began on Tuesday, is targeting “high risk populations” in seven districts bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to Dr. Nicaise Ndembi of the Africa CDC. Nigeria provided the doses from a 10,000-dose allocation it received from the United States.
This initiative comes as the DRC grapples with a severe mpox outbreak. In the past week alone, the country reported 2,912 new cases and 14 deaths, bringing the total to 6,105 cases and 738 fatalities since the beginning of the year.
Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of Africa CDC, emphasized the urgency of the situation, stating, “This outbreak must be stopped very quickly.” He noted that Rwanda and other countries are now requesting more doses than initially anticipated, with experts estimating that Africa might need approximately 10 million vaccines to control the ongoing outbreaks.
In response to the crisis, the Japanese government has agreed to provide 3 million mpox vaccine doses to the DRC. The DRC is expected to commence its vaccination campaign in early October, with 165,000 doses already delivered and hundreds of thousands more pledged by European countries.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for increased international support, stating, “International collaboration and support are needed to stop the spread of the virus.”
Dr. Kaseya also stressed the importance of developing vaccine manufacturing capabilities within Africa to address future needs more efficiently.
In a related development, the WHO granted its first authorization for the use of an mpox vaccine in adults, manufactured by Bavarian Nordic A/S. This approval allows organizations like Gavi and UNICEF to purchase the vaccine, though supplies remain limited due to single-manufacturer constraints.
As African nations mobilize to combat the mpox outbreak, the situation underscores the ongoing challenges in vaccine equity and distribution across the continent.
