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ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA | THE INDEPENDENT | The Access and Allocation Mechanism (AAM) for mpox, a mechanism formed to counter mpox, has allocated an initial 899,000 vaccine doses for 9 countries across the African region that are hit hard by the current mpox surge.
In collaboration with affected countries and donors, this decision aims to ensure that the limited doses are used effectively and fairly, with the overall objective to control the outbreaks.
The AAM principals from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO) approved the allocation, following the recommendations of an independent Technical Review Committee of the Continental Incident Management Support Team for mpox. The decision was informed by country readiness and epidemiological data, according to a statement released on Thursday.
The 9 countries are the Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. The largest number of doses – 85% of the allocation – will go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the most affected country, reporting four out of every five laboratory-confirmed cases in Africa this year.
The outbreak of mpox, particularly the surge of the viral strain clade Ib, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring countries was declared a public health emergency of international concern by WHO and a public health emergency of continental security by Africa CDC in mid-August. This year, 19 countries in Africa have reported mpox, many of them newly affected by the viral disease. The epicentre of the outbreak remains the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with over 38,000 suspected cases and over 1000 deaths reported this year.
In recent weeks, limited vaccination has begun in the country and Rwanda. This allocation to the 9 countries marks a significant step towards a coordinated and targeted deployment of vaccines to stop the mpox outbreaks.
Over 5.85 million vaccine doses are expected to be available to the Mpox Vaccines AAM by the end of 2024, including the nearly 900,000 allocated doses.
The supply includes contributions from multiple nations and organizations, including 1.85 million dose donations of MVA-BN from the European Union, United States, and Canada, 500 000 doses of MVA-BN from Gavi utilizing the First Response Fund, 500 000 doses procured through UNICEF, as well as a further 3 million doses of the LC16 vaccine from Japan.
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