The Democratic Republic of the Congo kicks off mpox vaccination

Kinshasa – The Democratic Republic of the Congo at the present time kicked off mpox vaccination, adding a chief measure to enhance the ongoing outbreak build an eye on efforts to cease the spread of the viral illness and attach lives. 

The vaccination, launched in the eastern North Kivu province, will prioritize health workers and frontline responders, contacts of confirmed cases, contacts of those contacts, and other at-possibility groups. The vaccination will on account of this fact be rolled out in 11 of the most affected effectively being zones in Equateur, North Kivu, Sankuru, South Kivu, Sud-Ubangi and Tshopo provinces.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has bought 265 000 doses of the MVA-BN vaccine donated by the European Commission’s Successfully being Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the United States Executive.

“As we rally efforts to end the mpox outbreak, the rollout of the vaccine marks a extraordinarily major step in limiting the spread of the virus and making certain the safety of households and communities,” acknowledged Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “Vaccines are a extraordinarily major additional tool in outbreak build an eye on and we’re grateful to our companions who hang donated the doses. We’re working closely with the national authorities to effectively bring the vaccines to of us that want them most.”

WHO recommends that vaccination be conducted as share of a entire response that involves enhanced surveillance, community engagement, contact tracing, public effectively being and social measures, and appropriate case administration. WHO and companions are working closely with the national authorities to scale up and make stronger all the key build an eye on measures to connect lives and cease the outbreak. 

To further strengthen the ongoing outbreak response, better than 300 WHO experts supporting polio eradication efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo hang been integrated in the mpox response. The experts hang extensive field trip in public effectively being, particularly in community-based entirely and effectively being-facility moving surveillance, case investigations, contact tracing and possibility communique, and hang been at the forefront in the fight in opposition to polio and other vaccine-preventable ailments. 

In preparations for the mpox vaccination, WHO has supported the national effectively being authorities in a fluctuate of areas, including practicing of health workers; bettering vaccine transport programs and infrastructure comparable to vaccine storage and transportation; community engagement; to boot to making certain supervision and evaluation of the job for quality vaccine transport. Efforts are moreover ongoing to make stronger measures to title and address vaccine mis- and disinformation and engage with community and religious leaders to manufacture bigger glean entry to to simply recordsdata. 

Mpox vaccines are at the moment in brief provide, especially in Africa. In September 2024, WHO added the MVA-BN as the first mpox vaccine to its prequalification checklist, a step that is anticipated to facilitate timely and elevated glean entry to to this major product in communities with urgent want, to lower transmission and reduction hang the outbreak.

WHO is working with companions, including Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and UNICEF, to set a distribution mechanism for doses being donated by other countries to boot to from train procurements from the vaccine producer.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has reported better than 30 000 suspected and laboratory-confirmed cases, and 990 deaths since the launch of 2024 – accounting for 90% of the cases reported from 15 countries in the African web page online to this level this year.