By Djaffar Al Katanty
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – Congolese health officials launched their first mpox vaccination campaign on Saturday, a key step in efforts to contain an outbreak that has spread from its epicentre in the Democratic Republic of Congo to 13 other African nations this year.
Officials held a ceremony to mark the start of vaccinations at a hospital in the eastern city of Goma, where health workers started to administer the first doses.
The Health Ministry warned on Friday that the campaign’s scope would be small due to limited resources. At the moment, 265,000 vaccine doses are available, though more are in the pipeline.
The start of vaccinations begins to address a huge inequity that left African countries with no access to the two shots used to fight a 2022 global mpox outbreak, while they were widely available in Europe and the United States.
Mpox can spread through close contact. Usually mild, it is fatal in rare cases. It typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.
In August, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern after a new variant was identified.
Since the start of the year in Africa, there have been 844 suspected and confirmed deaths from mpox and about 32,800 suspected and confirmed cases, most of which were in Congo, according to WHO data as of Sept. 20.
(Additional reporting by Ange Kasongo and Benoit Nyemba; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Helen Popper)
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