Blitz Bureau
CONGO: Mpox has spread to 15 African countries in 2024, six of which had never seen a single case of the disease, leaving health officials scrambling to contain the continent’s deadliest mpox surge to date. But they finally have a new tool to help — vaccines — which have not previously been available in Africa despite mpox being detected on the continent decades ago, reports Nature.
Mpox vaccines used in wealthy nations such as Germany and the United States did not materialise in Africa, even during a global outbreak of the disease in 2022, says Nicaise Ndembi, a virologist at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Addis Ababa.
This year, however, doses have begun to arrive, after the World Health Organization declared mpox a global publichealth emergency for the second time in history.
On September 17, Rwandan health officials began administering jabs to those at high risk of infection; the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has been the African country hardest hit by the disease, followed suit on October 5; and Nigeria is set to start its own vaccinations in the next two weeks.
