Congo Receives First Doses of Mpox Vaccine From US

Amid a global health emergency over mpox, Congo has received 50,000 doses of the mpox vaccine from the United States on Tuesday.
Speaking to The Associated Press, Cris Kacita Osako, coordinator of Congo’s Monkeypox Response Committee, said vaccinations will begin in the country on October 2 and will target adults in the provinces of Equateur, South Kivu and Sankuru—regions hardest hit by the outbreak.
The arrival of the vaccine doses on Tuesday follows an earlier batch of 100,000 doses from the European Union through HERA, the bloc’s agency for health emergencies. Those vaccines, which arrived in the capital of Congo last week, are part of the JYNNEOS vaccine, manufactured by Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic. Another 100,000 doses were delivered over the weekend.
The 50,000 doses from the U.S. are also of the JYNNEOS vaccine and comes after the U.S. government previously pledged an additional $17 million to support mpox preparedness and response efforts in Central and Eastern Africa.
Newsweek reached out to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via email on Tuesday for comment.
The U.S. shipment brings the total number of vaccine doses in Congo to 250,000. However, African health authorities have previously requested more vaccines.
In August, Congo Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said his country needed 3 million vaccine doses to effectively end the outbreaks.
EU nations have pledged to provide an additional 500,000 doses, though no specific timeline has been announced for their arrival.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, a global health emergency last month following outbreaks of the virus in Africa.
“This is something that should concern us all…The potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in August.
Mpox, a virus related to smallpox but typically less severe, manifests with symptoms like fever, chills and body aches, spreading primarily through close skin contact, including sexual transmission. In severe cases, patients may develop painful lesions on the face, hands and genitals.
While the mpox outbreaks have touched 12 of Africa’s 54 countries, Congo remains the epicenter, accounting for 91 percent of the continent’s cases this year. Since the start of 2024, the continent has seen 5,549 confirmed mpox cases, with 643 resulting in death—a steep rise from previous years.
Last week, WHO and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a coordinated response across 12 African nations. In addition, Congo has issued emergency approval for the vaccine to be administered to adults. As of right now, the vaccine will be prioritized for adults in close contact with infected individuals and sex workers, according to Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya.
However, plans to vaccinate children aged 12-17 could begin by the end of the month, pending approval from the European Medicines Agency, HERA Director-General Laurent Muschel said. In addition, Congo anticipates receiving another vaccine shipment from Japan, which could arrive as early as this weekend.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.