Africa CDC calls for solidarity in response to mpox

Mpox vaccine

The public health agency has received offers to donate over 215,000 mpox vaccine doses so far – but aims to reach two million

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has called on the international community to provide support in response to an outbreak of mpox – and to resist imposing travel bans on affected countries.

“Don’t punish Africa,” said Jean Kaseya, the public health agency’s Director General, at a media briefing on 20 August. “I clearly request our partners to stop thinking about travel bans against Africa, that will bring us back to the unfair treatment from the Covid-19 period and not help the world to move forward.”

Africa CDC is currently working to mobilise two million vaccines to combat the health crisis – a target it hopes to reach with the support of international partners.

“We need solidarity, we need you to provide appropriate support – this vaccine is expensive,” Kaseya said.

215,000 vaccine doses to be donated

Africa CDC stated that it has already received offers to donate over 215,000 mpox vaccine doses.

This includes 175,420 from the European Union, which will coordinate the procurement through its Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).

HERA will also work with the Africa CDC to expand access to mpox diagnostics and sequencing in the affected region through a €3.5 million grant expected in the early autumn.

On top of this, pharmaceutical firm Bavarian Nordic has said that it will provide an additional 40,000 doses to be donated by HERA to the Africa CDC – which will then distribute the medication according to regional needs.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the ongoing African Clade 1b mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) last week. The outbreak is centred on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but has since spread to other nations such as Burundi, the Central African Republic, Kenya, and Rwanda.

There have been a handful of reported mpox cases outside of these countries so far – a Clade 1 case was identified in Sweden on 16 August, while cases reported in Pakistan and the Philippines were later found to be the milder Clade 2 variant.