DRC launches first mpox vaccination drive in efforts to curb outbreak

The vaccine will first be given to health workers and those with existing health issues.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has launched its first vaccination campaign against mpox in the eastern city of Goma, which was hit the hardest by an outbreak.

Vaccines were first administered to hospital staff on Saturday, with the wider vaccine drive due to start on Monday in the east of the country, where the current outbreak began last year.

On Friday, the DRC Ministry of Public Health warned that the vaccine campaign would be limited due to few resources. So far, only 265,000 doses are available.

“As you can imagine, in a country of 100 million people, we’re not going to solve the problem with 265,000 doses,” Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba told a news conference on Friday.

He added that the aim of the drive was to target priority groups, including those with existing health issues and health workers.

More doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive from France, Japan and the United States.

Last month, US President Joe Biden said Washington plans to donate one million doses of the mpox vaccine to African nations.

World Health Organization’s Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said in a statement that the vaccine rollout marks “an important step in limiting the spread of the virus and ensuring the safety of families and communities”.

Since the start of 2024, the DRC has reported more than 30,000 suspected and confirmed cases of mpox, and 900 deaths, the World Health Organization said.

The virus can spread through close contact with an infected person or animal. Once contracted, the virus typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.

In August, the WHO declared mpox a public health emergency after discovering a new, more infectious variant, named clade Ib.

According to the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, mpox has been detected in 16 African countries so far this year.

On Friday, the WHO announced that it had approved a PCR test to detect mpox by swabbing skin lesions.

Kamba said the WHO pledged about 4,500 tests for the DRC but did not provide an arrival date.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies