JUST IN: NIGERIA, EIGHT OTHERS GET 899,000 MPOX VACCINE
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Nine African nations that have been severely impacted by the current Mpox outbreak, including Nigeria, have received an initial allocation of 899,000 vaccine doses through the Access and Allocation Mechanism for Mpox.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention revealed this in a joint news release on Thursday.
According to the statement, the decision is intended to guarantee that the limited doses are used efficiently and equitably in cooperation with the afflicted nations and donors, with the ultimate goal of containing the epidemics.
Following the recommendations of an independent Technical Review Committee of the Continental Incident Management Support Team for Mpox, it stated that the allocation was approved by the AAM principals from Africa CDC, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, and the World Health Organisation.
According to the statement, epidemiological statistics and country readiness were taken into consideration when making the decision.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Central African Republic are the nine nations. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the most impacted nation with four out of five laboratory-confirmed cases in Africa this year, would receive the most doses—85% of the allocation.
These doses come from Canada, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Spain), as well as the European Union Health Emergency Response Authority, and the United States of America.
In mid-August, the WHO and Africa CDC designated the Mpox outbreak—specifically, the rise of the virus strain clade Ib in the DRC and adjacent countries—a public health emergency of worldwide significance and continental security, respectively.
Nineteen African nations have reported cases of Mpox this year, with several of them being newly afflicted by the virus. With over 38,000 suspected cases and over 1,000 recorded deaths this year, the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to be the core of the outbreak, it noted.
In addition to emphasising prompt testing and diagnosis, efficient clinical care, infection control, and community participation, it emphasised that vaccination is advised as part of a holistic Mpox response strategy. Vaccines are advised in order to prevent the spread of disease and to assist control outbreaks.
“In recent weeks, limited vaccination has begun in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. This allocation to the nine countries marks a significant step towards a coordinated and targeted deployment of vaccines to stop the Mpox outbreaks.
“For most countries, the rollout of Mpox vaccines will be a new undertaking. Implementing targeted vaccination requires additional resources. Partners of the Mpox AAM, set up last month, are working to scale up the response. Further allocations of vaccines are expected before the end of the year,” it stated.
On vaccine availability, it said over 5.85 million vaccine doses are expected to be available to the Mpox Vaccines AAM by the end of 2024, including the nearly 900,000 allocated doses.
“The supply includes contributions from multiple nations and organisations, including 1.85 million doses of MVA-BN from the European Union, United States, and Canada, 500,000 doses of MVA-BN from Gavi utilising the First Response Fund, 500,000 doses procured through UNICEF, as well as a further 3 million doses of the LC16 vaccine from Japan,” it noted.
In August, Nigeria received 10,000 doses of the Jynneos Mpox vaccine from the government of the United States of America.
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