Kehinde Fajobi
The Access and Allocation Mechanism (AAM) for Mpox has allocated an initial 899,000 vaccine doses to nine African countries, including Nigeria, which have been severely impacted by the current Mpox outbreak.
This allocation was announced in a joint press release issued by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Thursday.
The statement noted that the decision, made in collaboration with affected countries and donors, aims to ensure the fair and effective use of the limited vaccine doses to control the outbreak.
The allocation, approved by the AAM principals—Africa CDC, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, and the World Health Organisation (WHO)—was based on recommendations from the independent Technical Review Committee of the Continental Incident Management Support Team for Mpox.
The decision also took into account country readiness and epidemiological data.
The nine countries receiving the doses are the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the hardest-hit country, will receive the largest share of the doses—85 percent of the total allocation—since it has reported four out of every five laboratory-confirmed cases in Africa this year.
The vaccine doses are being sourced from various contributors, including Canada, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the European Union (comprising Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Spain), the European Union Health Emergency Response Authority, and the United States of America.
Mpox, particularly the strain clade Ib in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighbouring countries, was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO and a public health emergency of continental security by Africa CDC in mid-August.
So far, 19 countries in Africa have reported cases of Mpox this year, many of which are newly affected by the disease.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo remains the epicentre, with over 38,000 suspected cases and more than 1,000 deaths reported in 2024.
The AAM also highlighted the importance of vaccination as part of a comprehensive response to the outbreak, alongside timely testing, diagnosis, clinical care, and community engagement.
Vaccination is essential to reducing transmission and containing the outbreak.
“In recent weeks, limited vaccination has begun in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda,” the statement said.
“This allocation to the nine countries marks a significant step towards a coordinated and targeted deployment of vaccines to stop the Mpox outbreaks.”
The rollout of Mpox vaccines will be a new effort for most of the affected countries, which will require additional resources.
Partners of the Mpox AAM, established last month, are working to scale up the response. Further vaccine allocations are expected before the year’s end.
By the end of 2024, over 5.85 million vaccine doses are expected to be available to the Mpox Vaccines AAM, including the nearly 900,000 allocated doses.
These supplies will include contributions from the European Union, United States, and Canada (1.85 million doses of MVA-BN), Gavi’s First Response Fund (500,000 doses of MVA-BN), UNICEF (500,000 doses of MVA-BN), and Japan (3 million doses of the LC16 vaccine).
In August, Nigeria received 10,000 doses of the Jynneos Mpox vaccine from the United States government.