Dr Leandre Murhula Masirika, a research coordinator in the health department in South Kivu province, also suggested the vaccine rollout may not be easy. The shot currently available, made by Bavarian Nordic, requires two doses and administering both may be challenging in a mobile and sometimes remote community. Supplies also remain limited.
“We still have few vaccines, [so] we cannot vaccinate all the target populations or their contacts,” he said. “We also still have gaps in children, we are vaccinating adults from 18 up, but many of our patients are younger than this.”
Yet there was optimism on Monday after the WHO approved the Bavarian Nordic shot for use in those aged 12 to 17 – children are at higher risk for serious illness and death due to complications from the disease. The Danish biotech firm has also said it is set to start a clinical trial to assess safety among those aged two to 12 this month.
“I hope that these trials can give good outcomes, so we can vaccinate more of those most at risk,” said Dr Muhaula Masirika. “We have not yet changed the policy [regarding the WHO approval] in the DRC… but we are only 10 days into the campaign. Let’s see how it goes.”
The UK’s latest commitment comes from a combination of underspent funding and money reserved for emergencies, and is on top of a £3.1m was pledged to tackle mpox and cholera in the DRC in August.
Much of it will be channelled through Unicef, and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it will be used in line with the continental response plan developed by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO.
The UK is also deploying two technical experts – an epidemiologist and an infection prevention and control specialist – to support the response. Though one African official questioned this element of the response as “colonial ” given the wealth of knowledge among African experts.
But Dr Ed Newman, director of the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team, said: “Our staff will provide specialist support to colleagues at Africa-CDC and the joint continental incident management team as they work to manage the ongoing mpox epidemic, as well as using this learning to further strengthen UK preparedness.”
Meanwhile the European Union this week announced an additional €20 million (£16.7m) to support the Africa CDC and WHO team’s continental response plan for mpox.
The bloc has also collectively pledged more than 560,000 mpox vaccines to the DRC – taking a different approach to the UK, which has instead stressed its support of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and said its own mpox doses would go out of date too soon to donate them.
Gavi has purchased 500,000 doses for the DRC and the UK is one of its largest donors, contributing £1.65bn between 2021 and 2025.
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