The Congo is set to receive its first batch of vaccine doses from the United States to combat the ongoing mpox outbreak next week, the country’s health minister said in a press conference on Monday.
The vital need for vaccines comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, a global health emergency last week following outbreaks of the virus in Africa.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also previously announced that the recent spread of mpox had become a public health emergency as there have been over 500 deaths caused by the virus in Africa.
“This is something that should concern us all…The potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
Newsweek reached out to the World Health Organization via email on Monday for comment.