GENEVA, Aug 31, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A first delivery of mpox vaccines is
expected to arrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the coming days,
the World Health Organization said Friday.

The WHO declared an international emergency over mpox on August 14, concerned
by the surge in cases of the new Clade 1b strain in the DR Congo that spread
to nearby countries.

After returning from the DRC on Friday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
told a press conference: "We hope to have the first delivery in the next few
days, and then it will build up."

More than 18,000 suspected cases of mpox have been reported in the DRC so far
this year, with 629 deaths, said Tedros.

The figure included more than 5,000 cases and 31 deaths in the eastern
provinces of North and South Kivu, where Clade 1b has been spreading.

"The number of reported cases of Clade 1b has been rising rapidly for several
weeks. Fortunately, relatively few deaths have been reported in recent
weeks," said Tedros.

In addition, 258 cases of Clade 1b have been confirmed in neighbouring
Burundi; four in Rwanda, four in Uganda, two in Kenya and one each in Sweden
and Thailand, he added.

In the DRC, Tedros met with President Felix Tshisekedi to discuss the
outbreaks, the importance of clear communication on the virus and strong
engagement with local communities.

"We believe we can stop these outbreaks in the next six months," the UN
health agency's director-general said.

- Procuring vaccines for DRC -

WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) is designed to expedite the availability of
unlicensed medical products, such as vaccines, for use in a public health
emergency.

The two main procurers of vaccines for low-income countries -- the Gavi
vaccine alliance and the UN children's agency UNICEF -- require EUL status to
buy vaccines for use in countries that have not issued their own national
regulatory approval.

Two mpox vaccines -- MVA-BN, produced by Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic,
and Japan's LC16 -- have been put forward for EUL status.

Tedros said the information the WHO had hitherto on the two vaccines was
partial, and the UN health agency received the additional information it
needed on August 23.

The process for granting EUL could take another two weeks, but in the
meantime, Tedros has given Gavi and UNICEF the authority to begin procuring
vaccines pending approval.

"We don't need to wait until two weeks before we proceed with procurements,"
he explained.

However, "the safety and efficacy of vaccines are our highest priority. We
will not take shortcuts," he added.

- Donations and pledges -

Tim Nguyen from the WHO health emergency programme said the European Union
had procured 175,000 doses of MVA-BN, while Bavarian Nordic was donating
40,000 doses.

All in all, there are "about 230,000 doses that we understand are imminently
available to be dispatched to affected regions", he said.

There were further pledges of donations, but Nguyen said they needed to
materialise into donations.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's epidemic and pandemic preparedness and
prevention director, said vaccines were only one of several available tools
to crack down on the virus.

"Right now, even when vaccines aren't available -- and it's going to take
some time for the vaccines to reach those at risk -- the right messages can
be reaching the right at-risk populations," she said.