Congo Gives Update on Mpox Vaccine Amid Global Emergency

The Congo is set to receive its first batch of vaccine doses from the United States to combat the ongoing mpox outbreak next week, the country’s health minister said in a press conference on Monday.

The vital need for vaccines comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, a global health emergency last week following outbreaks of the virus in Africa.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also previously announced that the recent spread of mpox had become a public health emergency as there have been over 500 deaths caused by the virus in Africa.

“This is something that should concern us all…The potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

Newsweek reached out to the World Health Organization via email on Monday for comment.

According to the WHO, “the monkeypox virus is an orthopoxvirus that causes mpox (monkeypox), a disease with symptoms similar to smallpox, although less severe.”

“Mpox is a zoonosis, a disease that is transmitted from animals to humans, with cases often found close to tropical rainforests where there are animals that carry the virus,” the WHO states. “The disease can also spread from humans to humans. It can be transmitted through contact with bodily fluids, lesions on the skin or on internal mucosal surfaces, such as in the mouth or throat, respiratory droplets and contaminated objects.”

Globally, the WHO has reported over 17,000 mpox cases and more than 500 deaths this year alone, with the Congo accounting for 96 percent of these figures.

With the country’s healthcare system already under strain due to its challenging geography, the outbreak has exacerbated the country’s efforts. While the outbreak has spread to more than a dozen African nations, with both children and adults affected, the availability of vaccines on the continent remains critically low.

According to the AP, Health Minister Roger Kamba revealed that the country needs approximately 3 million vaccine doses.

“We are talking about a continental emergency,” Kamba told reporters on Monday.

In response to the health emergency, the U.S. government has pledged an additional $17 million to support mpox preparedness and response efforts in Central and Eastern Africa. The government also plans to donate 50,000 doses of mpox vaccines to the Congo with the first batch expected to arrive next week.

According to the AP, Japan has also pledged to donate vaccines, although details regarding the quantity and the arrival of the doses from Japan remain unclear.

Adding to the concern is the emergence of a new variant of mpox in Congo, which experts believe may be more easily transmissible.

Last week, Sweden reported its first case of this new variant, but it’s anticipated that only sporadic imported cases will surface, the AP reported.

This new variant presents milder symptoms and different lesion patterns, with lesions appearing on the genitals rather than the chest, hands and feet as seen in previous outbreaks. This change makes the virus harder to detect, raising the risk of unknowingly transmitting the disease as mpox primarily spreads through close, skin-to-skin contact and is not airborne.

This is not the first time mpox posed a global threat as the WHO previously declared mpox a global emergency in 2022 after the virus spread to 70 different countries. However, in that outbreak, less than 1 percent of those infected died.

While concerns of the virus spreading to the U.S. is “very low,” according to the CDC, the agency advises that those in the U.S. who have had mpox or are fully vaccinated should be protected against both variants of mpox.

In addition, the agency said you can also protect yourself by taking the following precautions:

• Avoid close contact with people who are sick with mpox symptoms, like skin lesions, especially around the genitals.
• Avoid contact with wild animals in areas where mpox regularly occurs (for example, while traveling).
• Avoid contact with contaminated people and materials such as bedding and clothing used by people who are sick.