A crucial advancement in the continent’s battle against the illness has been made with the introduction of the first mpox vaccine campaign in Africa by Rwanda.
As of Tuesday, 300 high-risk people in a border region with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had received doses of the vaccine from the nation.
The Africa Center for Disease Control’s (Africa CDC) Director-General, Jean Kaseya, announced the start of the campaign and stressed how urgent it is to stop the spread.
“We need to contain this outbreak as soon as possible,” Kaseya declared.
Declaring, “We are working closely with our manufacturers and partners to ensure these vaccines are produced in Africa,” he further emphasized the importance of local vaccine production.
In the initial implementation, the Rwandan Ministry of Health targeted high-risk populations such as health personnel, cross-border business operators, and hospitality staff.
With 2,912 new cases and 14 deaths in the last week alone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is still in the center of the African mpox pandemic. Since January, there have been 6,105 cases and 738 deaths in the DRC.
Beginning in early October, the DRC is anticipated to start immunizing its citizens; 165,000 pills have already been supplied, and more supplies have been promised by European countries.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, urged worldwide collaboration to stop the mpox outbreak.
Ghebreyesus said on X (previously Twitter) that “international collaboration and support are needed to stop the spread of the virus.”
Donations of vaccines have also been used to benefit other African countries, such as Nigeria.
To further support efforts to suppress the outbreak, the US sent 10,000 doses of the mpox vaccine to Nigeria in August through USAID.
