What is mpox? Symptoms, transmission and available vaccines

When will the DRC get more vaccines?

Health authorities in the DRC have said they will need around 3.5 million doses to protect the population, although supplies remain extremely limited in the vast country.

Several countries, including the US, Japan and France, have said they will donate doses from their own supplies, with the jabs expected to reach the Democratic Republic of Congo as early as next week.

Global vaccine group Gavi has also said it has up to $500 million to spend on getting shots in countries hit by the escalating outbreak.

The African Union has approved $10.4 million in emergency funding for the African Center for Disease Control’s efforts to curb MPox, which it says aims to secure three million vaccine doses this year.

Still, sources involved in planning the country’s rollout told Reuters that only 65,000 doses were likely to be available in the short term, with vaccination campaigns unlikely to start until October.

Other elements also need to be eliminated: Who will get the vaccine? How will it be distributed? Can it be used as prophylaxis, meaning it can be given in a targeted manner to the contacts of mpox patients?

Do the vaccines work against all clades?

Yes – for now. According to the European Center for Disease Control, data on the effectiveness of clade-specific vaccines is currently limited – much of the evidence is linked to clade two after it traveled around the world.

But public health experts say they expect the vaccine to work against clade one because the two strains are 90 percent similar.

And in a recent podcast for the Infectious Disease Society of America, Dr. Agam Rao, an MPox expert at the CDC, said a small study from the agency suggested the shots produce a good immune response and appeared to protect health care workers in an area that is very vulnerable. endemic to clade one.

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about it Global healthcare