President Joe Biden will announce Tuesday the donation of 1 million mpox vaccine doses and at least $500 million to African countries to support their response to the outbreak, a senior administration official said.
Biden, attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, will call on other countries to make similar contributions, the official told Reuters.
The World Health Organization declared mpox a global public health emergency in August following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that spread to neighboring countries and beyond, including India.
The donated doses are expected to be the Bavarian Nordic vaccine known as Jynneos in the United States, with many coming from a U.S. stockpile. This donation is in addition to 60,000 previously donated shots.
The administration anticipates that Gavi, a public-private alliance that co-funds vaccine purchases for low-income countries, will distribute the donated vaccines. Last week, Gavi announced plans to purchase 500,000 doses of Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine.
Mpox, which can spread through close contact, usually causes mild symptoms but can be fatal in rare cases. It leads to flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.
The outbreak in Congo began with an endemic strain known as clade I, but a new variant, clade Ib, appears to spread more easily through routine close contact, including sexual contact.
The Biden administration is also promoting vaccine manufacturing in low and middle-income countries and collaborating with Brazil to identify how the G20 nations can support the mpox response.
