Congo brings forward launch of mpox vaccine drive to Oct 2

By Sonia Rolley

(Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo will start its mpox vaccination campaign on Oct. 2, nearly a week earlier than previously planned, the head of its outbreak response said on Wednesday.

Congo is the epicentre of the ongoing mpox outbreak that the World Health Organization declared to be a global public health emergency last month, but a lack of vaccines has until now hampered efforts to curb the spread of the sometimes deadly virus.

The central African country had been planning to launch vaccinations on Oct. 8 after receiving its first delivery of mpox doses last week. But health authorities now intend to start the campaign on Oct. 2, response chief Cris Kacita told Reuters.

"There are procedures that have evolved and helped reduce delays," he said, adding that the vaccination campaign will last 10 days and target only adults, including healthcare professionals, park rangers and sex workers in Congo's six provinces.

He has previously said that work was ongoing to combat mistrust of the vaccine in some communities and to manage the logistical challenge of rolling out the programme across six provinces in a country the size of Western Europe.

On Tuesday, Congo received 50,000 mpox vaccine doses that had been donated by the United States, Ambassador Lucy Tamlyn said on X.

Kacita told Reuters that Congo had received in total 265,000 doses from the United States and the European Union.

He said those doses would not be sufficient to cover many areas in the central African country. "There have been promises from France and Belgium, and the number of doses is expected to be known within the week," Kacita said.

Japan has promised to donate 3.5 million doses of a vaccine that could administered to children, who are among the main victims of the epidemic, he said, adding that discussions were still continuing.

(Editing by Alessandra Prentice, Anait Miridzhanian and Sandra Maler)