The European Commission will finance the delivery and transport of 122,300 doses of mpox vaccines donated by Portugal, Belgium and Germany to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), it was announced today.
A first shipment of 100,000 doses, donated by Germany, is expected to arrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) today.
The delivery of the 122,300 doses is part of the commitment by the European Union (EU) and its Member States to donate 580,000 doses of vaccines against mpox to Africa CDC, with 205,000 already sent.
Further shipments from other EU countries are expected in the coming weeks.
The vaccines will be transported by UNICEF, based on a partnership with the EU executive.
As of November 7, the African continent had already recorded 50,840 cases, with 545% more confirmed cases than in the whole of 2023, and 1,083 deaths from mpox since the beginning of 2024 in 19 countries on the continent.
The Africa CDC highlighted, in particular, the confirmation of 20 new cases in Rwanda, a country in which no new infections had been detected for almost four weeks.
Of the 14 African countries that have recently reported new infections, Cameroon, Gabon, Guinea-Conakry and South Africa have been free of new cases for six weeks.
The DR Congo, the epicentre of the outbreak, and neighbouring Burundi account for the overwhelming majority of infections.
The African Union's public health agency declared mpox a public health emergency on the African continent on 13 August, and the following day, the World Health Organisation issued an international health alert for the disease.
MPOX is an infectious disease that can cause a painful rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever, headaches, muscle aches, back pain, and lack of energy.
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