The World Health Organisation’s Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says Mpox vaccines will be arriving in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the next few days to fight a new strain of the virus.
He stated this at a press conference in Geneva.
WHO official Tim Nguyen added that some 230,000 Mpox doses are immediately available to be dispatched.
These doses were donated by the European Commission and Danish Mpox vaccine manufacturer Bavarian Nordic, Nguyen said.
The WHO has said that its partners can start buying Mpox vaccines before they are approved by the U.N. health agency, lifting its usual rules in a bid to get inoculations to Africa faster.
It is currently reviewing applications for emergency licenses for two vaccines made by Bavarian Nordic and Japan’s KM Biologics.
The WHO chief said these were expected to be granted in the next two weeks.
Speaking, Rosamund Lewis, WHO’s technical lead for mpox, said she hoped the vaccines and other interventions by health partners would help cases come down again in the near future.
A day after the agency started the process, a maker of mpox diagnostic kits also indicated interest in getting WHO’s emergency use listing for their kit, opens new tab, Tedros added without naming the company.
After the virus spread to neighboring countries during an epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo earlier this month, the WHO designated mpox a worldwide public health emergency.
According to Tedros, there have been over 18,000 probable mpox cases registered in the Congo thus far this year, with 629 deaths. Over 150 cases have also been verified in Burundi.
