Congo authorities request mpox vaccines from Japan

(Reuters) -The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has requested Japan for supplies of mpox vaccines and syringes amid the worst outbreaks of the disease in the central African country.

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is preparing to provide the supplies to the DRC, in cooperation with the World Health Organization and other partners, it said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Monday.

The ministry "intends to provide as much support as possible", Masano Tsuzuki, section chief of its division of infectious disease prevention and control, said.

Japan-based KM Biologics is one of the manufacturers of an mpox vaccine. Denmark's Bavarian Nordic makes another vaccine, called Jynneos, for the disease. Japan holds a stockpile of the KM Biologics vaccine.

Outside clinical trials, neither of the shots have ever been available in Congo or across Africa, where the disease has been endemic for decades.

Last week, the WHO declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years as the outbreak in DRC spread to neighboring countries.

Mpox, a viral infection that causes pus-filled lesions and flu-like symptoms, is usually mild but can kill. Two strains are now spreading in Congo — the endemic form of the virus, clade I, and a new offshoot called clade Ib.

The virus transmits through close physical contact, including sexual contact, but unlike previous global pandemics such as COVID-19 there is no evidence it spreads easily through the air.

(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru and Rocky Swift in Tokyo; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)