According to the African Union’s watchdog, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the continent is close to securing almost one million Mpox vaccine doses. Manufacturers have been urged to share the vaccine-making technology to combat the disease.
Africa has been leading the fight against Mpox since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an international emergency earlier this month due to the rapid spread of the disease.
“We are moving towards securing nearly a million doses ” of Mpox vaccines, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Director-General Jean Kaseya told a WHO regional meeting in Congo-Brazzaville.
Many countries have pledged to send vaccines to Africa, and Spain alone has donated 500,000 doses.
Kaseya stated that 215,000 vaccine doses had been acquired from Danish manufacturer Bavarian Nordic, and urged the company to share the knowledge needed to manufacture vaccines locally.
“We told Bavarian Nordic that we need a transfer of technology towards African manufacturers,” he said, adding that he believed Mpox vaccines would be made in Africa “very soon”.
Mpox is a viral disease that is transmitted from animals to humans. The contagious disease, which can spread among humans, causes fever, muscle pain and skin lesions.
The detection of a new strain called Clade 1b prompted the WHO to declare an international health emergency on August 14.
As of August 27, Africa recorded 22,863 suspected cases and 622 deaths linked to the Mpox strain.
The WHO also reported 5,281 confirmed cases of Mpox from the beginning of 2024 up till August 25.