Vaccines to help curb an escalating mpox outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring countries may still not reach the central African country for months even as the World Health Organization considers following Africa’s top public health agency in declaring the outbreak an emergency.
On Tuesday, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention declared a public health emergency of continental concern for the first time ever, and on Wednesday, a WHO-led panel meets to decide if it represents a global threat.
But while experts hoped the meetings would galvanize action worldwide, many obstacles remain, including limited vaccine supply, funding and competing disease outbreaks.
“It is important to declare an emergency because the disease is spreading,” said Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, head of Congo’s Institut National pour la Recherche Biomedicale (INRB). He said he hoped any declaration would help provide more funding for surveillance as well as supporting access to vaccines in Congo.
But he acknowledged the road ahead was not easy in a huge country where health facilities and humanitarian funds are already stretched by conflict and outbreaks of diseases like measles and cholera.
“If the big declarations remain just words, it won’t make any material difference,” said Emmanuel Nakoune, an mpox expert at the Institut Pasteur de Bangui in Central African Republic.
Africa CDC said last week it had been granted US$10.4 million in emergency funding from the Africa Union for its mpox response, and its director general Jean Kaseya said on Tuesday there was a clear plan to secure 3 million doses of vaccine this year, without elaborating further.
However, sources involved in planning a vaccination roll-out in Congo said only 65,000 doses were likely to be available in the short-term, and campaigns were unlikely to begin before October at the earliest.
There have been more than 15,000 suspected cases of mpox in Africa this year and 461 deaths, mainly among children in Congo, according to Africa CDC. The viral infection is usually mild but can kill, and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions.
A new offshoot of the virus has caused outbreaks in refugee camps in the east of Congo this year, and spread to Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Kenya for the first time.
Ivory Coast and South Africa are also experiencing outbreaks linked to a different strain of the virus, which spread globally in 2022, largely among men who have sex with men. This outbreak prompted WHO to declare a global emergency before ending it 10 months later.
Then, two vaccines were used - Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos, and LC16, made by KM Biologics. Outside clinical trials, neither has ever been available in Congo or across Africa, where the disease has been endemic for decades. Only LC16 is approved for use in children.
Congo's regulators approved the use of the vaccines domestically in June, but the government is yet to officially request any from either the manufacturers or governments like the United States looking to make donations through the global vaccine group, Gavi.
(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Giles Elgood)
The Israeli military targeted a top Hezbollah figure in a strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, two security sources in Lebanon said, sharply escalating the year-long conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group.
Smoke is rising over Lebanon’s capital of Beirut Friday after Israel’s military struck southern suburbs – a dramatic escalation in a year-long period of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
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Lawyers in Britain representing dozens of alleged victims of Mohamed Al Fayed, the former boss of Harrods, said Friday their clients assert that he was a “monster” who raped and sexually abused young women.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Treasury Board President Anita Anand to take on additional duties as Canada's minister of transport on Thursday.
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The head of Via Rail repeatedly told MPs a train delay over the Labour Day long weekend was an isolated incident, despite a similar event two years ago.
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British actress Florence Pugh has revealed that shaving her head for her latest movie role was a 'really bizarre' experience that sent her body 'into a bit of trauma.'
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Ontario Provincial Police executed a search warrant in Walkerton.
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A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.
A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.
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A new community health profile in the Algoma District shows the area is significantly below provincial averages in a number of health metrics.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester’s farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
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