Congolese health officials have launched their first vaccination campaign against the viral disease mpox (formerly monkeypox), a key step in efforts to contain an outbreak that has spread from its epicentre in the Democratic Republic of Congo to many other African countries this year.
Officials held a ceremony to mark the start of vaccination at a hospital in the eastern city of Goma, where health workers were first in line to receive doses of the vaccine.
The health ministry warned on Friday that the scale of the campaign would be small due to limited resources. There are currently 265,000 doses of the vaccine available, although more are in the pipeline.
The vaccination rollout begins to address the huge injustice that has left African countries without access to the two shots used to fight the global mpox epidemic in 2022, while they were widely available in Europe and the United States.
"The introduction of the vaccine marks an important step towards limiting the spread of the virus and ensuring the safety of families and communities," Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization's (WHO) regional director for Africa, said in a statement.
Mpox can spread through close contact. Usually mild, in rare cases fatal. Usually causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.
In August, the WHO declared the epidemic a public health emergency of international concern after a new variant was identified.
Congo has reported more than 30,000 suspected and confirmed cases and 990 deaths since the beginning of 2024 - accounting for 90 percent of the cases reported from Africa so far, according to WHO.
CGTN / gnews.cz - HeK
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