KINSHASA: The first delivery of almost 100,000 doses of mpox vaccines will arrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, the African Union’s health watchdog said, with a total of 200,000 jabs expected this week.
The vast central Africa country of around 100 million people is at the epicenter of the mpox outbreak, with cases and deaths rising.
“We are very pleased with the arrival of this first batch of vaccines in the DRC,” Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told AFP, adding that more than 99,000 doses were expected on Thursday.
More than 17,500 cases and 629 deaths have been reported in the country since the start of the year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The first cargo of vaccine doses will be transported onboard an aeroplane leaving the Danish capital Copenhagen on Wednesday evening and are due to arrive at Kinshasa’s international airport on Thursday at 1100 GMT.
Another flight carrying the rest of the 200,000 jabs is scheduled to arrive before the end of the week, Africa CDC confirmed. These first vaccines come from the laboratory of Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic.
According to the WHO, the DRC’s government plans to start rolling out the jabs at the weekend.
UNICEF says that thousands of children in the DRC and neighboring countries are at serious risk of contracting the disease.
“We are in a health war against mpox. To face this disease, we need you,” Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said on X on Tuesday.
In Africa, mpox is now present in at least 13 countries, including Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic, according to figures from Africa CDC dated August 27.
On Wednesday, Guinea said it had recorded its first confirmed case of the disease, convening an emergency meeting in response.
A health official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that the case was discovered in a sub-prefecture close to the Liberian border.
Outside the continent, the virus has also been detected in Sweden, Pakistan and the Philippines.
Other countries have also promised to send vaccine doses to African nations.
Spain has promised 500,000 doses, with France and Germany each pledging 100,000.
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 DRC that spread to nearby countries.
Both the Clade 1b and Clade 1a strains are present in the DRC.
The WHO’s Africa bureau said at the end of last month that 10,000 vaccine doses would be delivered to Nigeria — Bavarian Nordic vaccines donated by the United States.
This was the first African country to receive doses outside of clinical trials.
Formerly called monkeypox, the virus was discovered in 1958 in Denmark, in monkeys kept for research.
It was first discovered in humans in 1970 in what is now the DRC.
Mpox is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.
First mpox vaccines due in DR Congo today
https://arab.news/c4j5q
First mpox vaccines due in DR Congo today
- The vast central Africa country of around 100 million people is at the epicenter of the mpox outbreak, with cases and deaths rising
- More than 17,500 cases and 629 deaths have been reported in DR Congo since the start of the year, World Health Organization says
US bombers join Japanese jets in show of force after China–Russia drills
- Japan says US B-52 bombers flew with Japanese F-35s and F-15s
- South Korea and Japan have scrambled jets during Chinese and Russian drills
TOKYO: US nuclear-capable bombers flew over the Sea of Japan alongside Japanese fighter jets on Wednesday, Tokyo said, in a show of force following Chinese and Russian drills in the skies and seas around Japan and South Korea.
Japan and the US “reaffirmed their strong resolve to prevent any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force and confirmed the readiness posture of both the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) and US forces,” Japan’s defense ministry said in a press release on Thursday.
The flight of two US B-52 strategic bombers with three Japanese F-35 stealth fighters and three F-15 air-superiority jets was the first time the US had asserted its military presence since China began military exercises in the region last week.
The display follows a joint flight of Chinese and Russian strategic bombers in the East China Sea and western Pacific on Tuesday and separate Chinese aircraft carrier drills that prompted Japan to scramble jets that Tokyo said were targeted by radar beams.
The encounter drew criticism from Washington, which said the incident was “not conducive to regional peace and stability” and reaffirmed that its alliance with Japan was “unwavering.”
Both Japan and South Korea host US forces, with Japan home to the biggest concentration of American military power overseas, including an aircraft carrier strike group and a US Marine expeditionary force.
China denied Tokyo’s accusation, saying Japanese jets flying near the carrier had endangered its air operations south of Japan.
South Korea’s military said it also scrambled fighter jets when the Chinese and Russian aircraft entered its air defense identification zone on Tuesday, an area that extends beyond its airspace and is used for early warning.
Regional tensions have risen since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan and has not ruled out using force to take control of the island, which sits just over 100 km (62 miles) from Japanese territory and is surrounded by sea lanes on which Tokyo relies.
