Africa reaches 622 smallpox deaths, awaits vaccines – DW – 08/27/2024

Thirteen African countries have recorded more than 22,800 cases and at least 622 deaths from smallpox, formerly known as monkeypox, since January, the African Union (AU) public health agency confirmed on Tuesday (27/08/2024), as the continent waits for vaccines against the disease.

“You can see an increase compared to last week. This shows us that the outbreak is continuing to evolve,” the director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said at a virtual press conference. The new, more contagious strain has raised concerns to the point that the WHO has issued an international alert over the outbreak.

According to the latest data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 22,863 cases of infection to date (3,641 confirmed and 19,222 suspected) in Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Gabon, Liberia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.

Thousands of vaccines

However, “(epidemiological) surveillance in Africa remains weak. We know that in many areas we are underreporting cases,” warned Caseya, saying the agency would deploy 72 epidemiologists to affected areas to improve infection reporting. As for the arrival of vaccines, the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assured that they expect the first doses to arrive in early September in the DRC, the country where the main outbreak is located.

The European Union (EU) will donate more than 215,000 doses of the vaccine produced by Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic, the only vaccine approved against mpox by the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to the continent. The figure will be added to the 100,000 vials to vaccinate 500,000 people that Spain will donate, the European country’s health ministry announced on Tuesday.

The Africa CDC is also expecting 50,000 doses pledged for the DRC by the United States, 100,000 announced by France, the same amount offered by Germany, and another 15,000 announced as a donation from Bavarian Nordic under the coordination of the GAVI Vaccine Alliance. Casey details.

The DRC government has asked Japan to donate two million doses of the vaccine produced by Japanese company KM Biologics, and negotiations have “moved a little bit,” explained epidemiologist Ngashi Ngongo, head of the executive office of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

DZK (EFE, AP)