A vaccination campaign against monkeypox in Congo will commence on October 2, with Equateur, South Kivu, and Sankuru provinces being the first to receive vaccines. The first batch of 100,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine, donated by the European Union through HERA, has already arrived in the country, with an additional 100,000 doses arriving on Saturday. However, authorities estimate that 3 million doses are needed to fully address the outbreak, with the European Union planning to donate over 500,000 more doses.
Since the beginning of 2024, there have been 5,549 confirmed cases of monkeypox in Africa, with 643 deaths, the vast majority of which have occurred in Congo. The Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization recently launched a continent-wide response plan to address the outbreak, which was declared a global emergency three weeks ago.
Currently, the vaccine is approved for use in adults in Congo, with priority given to close contacts of infected individuals and sex workers. The European Medicines Agency is reviewing data to enable the vaccination of children aged 12 to 17, with potential authorization by the end of the month. Overall, the vaccination campaign aims to curb the spread of monkeypox in Congo, which is at the center of the global health emergency.
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