The global vaccine alliance Gavi will buy 500,000 doses of
mpox vaccine to battle outbreaks of the disease in African countries, the
organization said on Wednesday.
The vaccine doses — manufactured by the Danish company
Bavarian Nordic — will be available this year, Gavi said, without giving any
specific dates.
Gavi said the full costs, including the transportation,
delivery and administration of the doses, amounting to $50 million, would be
covered by the group's First Response Fund, a new financial mechanism created
in June 2024.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been over 25,000
confirmed mpox cases and 723 related deaths, the vast majority in Congo, and
the World Health Organization declared it a global health emergency.
So far Congo, the epicenter of the global health emergency,
has received only 250,000 vaccine doses, donated by the European Union and the
United States. The 250,000 doses are just a fraction of the 3 million doses
authorities have said are needed to end the mpox outbreak in the country.
EU countries pledged to donate more than 500,000 others, but
the timeline for their delivery remained unclear.
Congo issued an emergency approval of the vaccine, which has
already been used in Europe and the United States in adults. Adults in
Equateur, South Kivu and Sankuru, the three most affected provinces, will be
vaccinated first, starting on Oct. 2, Cris Kacita Osako, coordinator of Congo's
Monkeypox Response Committee, told The Associated Press. For the moment, the
rollout will be reserved for adults, with priority targeted groups being those
who have been in close contact with infected people and sex workers.
Gavi's announcement comes days after the World Health
Organization said it has granted its first authorization for the use of a
vaccine against mpox in adults, calling it an important step toward fighting
the disease in Africa. It made it possible for donors like Gavi and UNICEF to
buy it. But supplies are limited because there's only a single manufacturer.
"This first (authorization) of a vaccine against mpox
is an important step in our fight against the disease, both in the context of
the current outbreaks in Africa and in future," said WHO Director-General
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Last week, the Africa Center for Disease Control and
Prevention and the World Health Organization launched a continent-wide response
plan to the outbreak of mpox, three weeks after WHO declared outbreaks in 12
African countries a global emergency.