Democratic Republic of Congo receives 50,000 doses of mpox vaccine from US

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) – The Democratic Republic of Congo received 50,000 doses of mpox vaccine from the US on Tuesday to boost efforts aimed at halting the disease outbreak.

Lucy Tamlyn, the US ambassador to the country, who announced the donation, said vaccines are a crucial element in preventing the spread of mpox.

“US support for the fight against mpox in the DRC is part of a decades-long health partnership that has seen our countries cooperate in the fight against a range of deadly diseases including malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and Ebola. We remain committed to supporting the DRC and working with international partners to end the current outbreak and protect the health and lives of people in the region,” she said.

The vaccine doses come days after the country received a first shipment of nearly 100,000 doses of mpox vaccine donated by the European Commission's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, the most affected country in the region, is seeing multiple outbreaks of mpox driven by different strains of the virus, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The current outbreak in the eastern part of the country is driven by a new variant of clade I, called clade Ib, which is spreading between people, including through sexual transmission.

The WHO said the new strain has now been detected in other countries in East and Central Africa including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. It has also been detected among travelers in countries outside Africa.

Since early 2024, the Democratic Republic of Congo has reported over 4,900 confirmed mpox cases and more than 620 deaths, the latest figures from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) show.