Mpox Vaccine Administered In Rwanda, First In Africa

The Mpox vaccine has been administered in Africa for the first time, with several hundred high-risk individuals receiving the vaccine in Rwanda, as announced by the African Union’s disease control center on Thursday.

According to a spokesperson from the AU’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the first 300 doses were administered on Tuesday near the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border.

The DRC has been the hardest-hit nation, reporting nearly 22,000 cases and over 700 deaths from the virus between January and August.

During a briefing, Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya shared that vaccinations in the DRC would commence in “the first week of October.”

Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals and can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.

Deadly in some cases, it causes fever, muscular aches, and large boil-like lesions on the skin.

The World Health Organization last week prequalified a mpox vaccine, MVA-BN, for the first time, paving the way for the United Nations and other international agencies to procure it.

The Africa CDC reports a total of 29,152 cases and 738 deaths across 15 countries on the continent.

“Mpox is not under control,” said Kaseya.

According to the WHO prequalification, the vaccine can be administered to people over the age of 18 as a two-dose injection given four weeks apart.

With most mpox cases and deaths in the DRC occurring in children, the WHO emphasized that the vaccine could be used “off-label” in infants, children, and adolescents, as well as in pregnant and immunocompromised individuals.

“This means vaccine use is recommended in outbreak settings where the benefits of vaccination outweigh the potential risks,” the WHO stated in a recent briefing.

The agency also recommends single-dose use in outbreak settings where supplies of the vaccine are constrained. However, more data is needed on vaccine safety and effectiveness in such circumstances, it stressed.

It noted that the currently available data showed that a single dose of the MVA-BN vaccine given before exposure had an estimated 76% effectiveness in protecting against mpox, while two doses were estimated to be 82% effective.