Goma, Congo (AP) – Congolese authorities began vaccinations Saturday. MpoxAlmost two months after an outbreak of the disease was declared that spread from Congo to several African countries and other countries, global emergency According to the World Health Organization.
265,000 doses of vaccines donated to Congo by the European Union and the United States have been rolled out in Goma, a city in eastern North Kivu province where hospitals and health workers are stretched thin. struggling to contain of New, possibly more infectious mpox strain.
In Congo, approximately 30,000 suspected chickenpox cases and 859 deaths have been reported in Africa this year, accounting for more than 80% of all cases and 99% of deaths. All 26 states in Central Africa have recorded mpox cases.
Most of the mpox infections and deaths recorded in Congo are in children under 15, but the doses being administered are only aimed at adults, and those at risk and front-line workers. will be administered, Health Minister Roger Kamba said this week.
“Strategies are being put in place by the authorities to vaccinate all eligible persons,” Chief of Staff to the Minister Mboyai Chikaya said as vaccinations began.
Kamba said at least three million doses of vaccines approved for use in children are expected to be delivered by Japan in the coming days.
Mpox, also known as monkeypox, spread largely undetected in Africa for years until the disease caused a global pandemic in 2022. Wealthy countries responded quickly with vaccines from their stockpiles, but Africa received only a few doses Despite requests from the government.
However, unlike A global pandemic in 2022 Dr. Dimmy Ogoyina, chair of the WHO’s MPOX emergency committee, recently said that in Africa, MPOX was overwhelmingly concentrated in gay and bisexual men, but it was also transmitted sexually, as well as in children, pregnant women and others. He said the infection is spreading through close contact between vulnerable people. he told reporters.
More than 34,000 suspected cases of the virus and 866 deaths have been recorded in 16 African countries this year. This is a 200% increase compared to the same period last year, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, access to vaccines remains a challenge.
Africa CDC Director Dr. Jean Kaseya told reporters last week that the continent of 1.4 billion people had secured only 5.9 million doses of the mpox vaccine, which are expected to be available between October and December. spoke. Congo remains a priority, he said.
At a vaccination drive in Goma, Dr. Jean Bruno Ngenze, WHO representative in the province, said North Kivu was at risk of a large-scale outbreak due to “orgies observed in camps” of displaced people. I warned you that there was. One of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises Incidents of armed violence that take place there.
News of the vaccination program has brought relief to many in Congo, especially hospitals that have been struggling to manage the outbreak.
“If everyone can be vaccinated, it will be even better to stop the spread of the disease,” said Dr. Msole Mlambamumba Robert, medical director of Kavumu Hospital, one of the mpox treatment centers in eastern Congo. .
Eastern Congo has been plagued by conflict for years, with more than 100 armed groups fighting for a foothold in the mineral-rich region near the border with Rwanda. Some people have been accused of carrying out Mass murder.
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Associated Press writers Jean-Yves Kamare in Kinshasa, Republic of the Congo, and Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
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