Africa Requests More Mpox Vaccines as Congo Reports 1,000 New Cases

Amid a global health emergency over mpox, African health authorities are now requesting more vaccines as Congo has reported a significant increase in mpox cases, with over 1,000 new infections recorded in just the past week.

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.

“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 last week.

Mpox, a virus related to smallpox but typically less severe, manifests with symptoms like fever, chills, and body aches, spreading primarily through close skin contact, including sexual transmission. In severe cases, patients may develop painful lesions on the face, hands and genitals.

According to the Associated Press (AP), while the mpox outbreaks have touched 12 of Africa’s 54 countries, Congo remains the epicenter, accounting for 94 percent of the continent’s cases this year. Out of 18,910 cases reported across Africa in 2024, Congo alone has registered 17,794, with 535 out of 541 deaths linked to the virus. However, the actual numbers could be much higher, as only one in five suspected cases in Congo undergo testing.

In addition, over the last seven days, Congo recorded 1,030 of the 1,405 new cases in Africa according to statistics provided on Tuesday by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC)

The Africa CDC has also highlighted the severe lack of testing and surveillance capabilities in many African nations. Dr. Jean Kaseya, the Africa CDC director-general, stressed that the escalating situation in Congo, combined with the emergence of a potentially more transmissible strain of the virus, has led to an increased need in vaccines.

Newsweek reached out to the Africa CDC via email on Wednesday for comment.

While Kaseya said that his organization had received a pledge of 215,000 mpox vaccines from the European Union and the vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic, which were due to arrive in the next few days, the Congo’s health minister said his country needed more.

According to the AP, Congo Health minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said his country alone needed 3 million vaccine doses to effectively end the outbreaks.

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

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

However, concerns over the amount of vaccines follows previous disparity in vaccine distribution in the 2022 mpox outbreak, where wealthier nations quickly received vaccines, while Africa was largely left out.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the global community’s failure to ensure equitable access to mpox vaccines and treatments, urging a more balanced approach this time around.

As mpox continues to spread, with cases in neighboring Burundi doubling in a week, African health leaders have called for support from the international community and urged against travel bans being placed on African countries.