The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) hopes to receive its first mpox vaccine doses by next week. This follows pledges of support from the United States and Japan to help tackle the outbreak. The World Health Organization recently renewed its global public health emergency declaration for mpox. This is due to the high spread of a new variant, clade Ib, across Africa.
Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba Mulamba shared at a press conference that Japan. Also, the U.S. have committed to providing vaccines to Congo. He is hopeful that the vaccines will arrive within a week, based on recent discussions with USAID and the U.S. government.
Beginning this year, reports suggested the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) faced its largest disease outbreak ever, with tens of thousands impacted in June. The DRC government declared it an epidemic in December 2022.
This addresses the vaccine access gap, as African countries had limited availability during the 2022 mpox outbreak, unlike Europe and the U.S., where vaccines were more readily accessible.
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