Rwanda this week began vaccinating people in high-risk areas against mpox, the first country in Africa to do so, amid a further rise in cases in multiple countries, the head of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said today.
As global support builds for the region's outbreak, Japan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) yesterday finalized a plan for Japan to donate mpox vaccine. And the Global Fund yesterday pledged nearly $10 million to support the DRC outbreak response.
Rwanda vaccination for high-risk people and regions
At a briefing, Jean Kaseya, MD, MPH, Africa CDC's director-general, said Rwanda's mpox vaccine campaign began 2 days ago, and about 500 people have been vaccinated so far. At this point the country has received 1,000 doses.
Rwanda's campaign focuses on seven districts that border the DRC, which has been the epicenter of the outbreak and accounts for more than 90% of the continent's cases. Rwanda is one of the countries neighboring the DRC to report circulation of the novel clade 1b virus.
Kaseya said people targeted for the first phase of vaccination include people at the highest risk, including truck drivers and sex workers.
Outbreak not under control, with cases still rising
Over the past week, the African region has reported 2,912 new mpox cases, 374 of them confirmed by lab testing. Fourteen newly infected people died from their infections.
Since the first of the year, Africa has reported 29,152 cases, along with 738 deaths, across 15 countries. Last week, Morocco became the first country in North Africa to report a mpox infection this year. Data from Africa CDC today suggest that Morocco's case involved the global clade 2 mpox virus and that the country now has three mpox cases.
Kaseya said he was part of a delegation that last week visited Burundi—where cases are rapidly rising—and Morocco to better understand the epidemiology of the outbreaks and challenges countries are facing. He said mpox is not under control in Africa yet, with a combination of clades circulating in different countries.
In Kinshasa, the DRC’s capital, clades 1a and 1b are both circulating, he said.
The Global Fund, in its announcement, said its $9.5 million in support came following a request from the DRC. The funds are earmarked for the emergency response in six of the highest transmission provinces—Equateur, South Ubangui, Sankuru, Tshopo, South Kivu, North Kivu—as well as in Kinshasa.
Japan, DRC sign deal for vaccine donation
In related developments, Japan's government and the DRC have signed off on Japan's offer to donate 3 million doses of LC16 mpox vaccine. LC16 was used in Japan in the 1970s to vaccinate young children and is a minimally replicating vaccine that is administered by dermal scarification.
Children younger than 15 years old have been disproportionally affected in the DRC outbreak.
Japan's donation also includes specialized inoculation needles to administer the vaccine, Africa CDC said in a statement. Kaseya said he deeply appreciates Japan's generous donation. "This timely assistance will significantly bolster our ongoing efforts to contain the outbreak, and I am confident that this partnership will help mitigate the public health threat posed by mpox, not only in the DRC but across the continent."
At a World Health Organization (WHO) briefing on global health issues today, Mike Ryan, MD, who leads the WHO's health emergencies program, said scarification is a skilled technique and hasn't been used in decades, but it is very effective.
He also weighed in on how vaccines fit into other strategies for battling the virus. The main goal is to break transmission chains, a strategy that relies on community efforts to isolate sick people and support affected families during the process. Ryan said vaccination can protect people who would otherwise be in the chain of transmission, multiplying the impact of other interventions.
