A patient with a severe form of the mpox epidemic is treated at the Kavumu hospital, 30 km north of Bukavu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, August 24, 2024. (Photo by Glody MURHABAZI / AFP)
Kinshasa: The first delivery of almost 100,000 doses of mpox vaccines will arrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, the African Union's health watchdog said.
The vast central Africa country of around 100 million people is at the epicentre of the mpox outbreak, with cases and deaths rising.
"We are very pleased with the arrival of this first batch of vaccines in the DRC," Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told AFP, adding that more than 99,000 doses were expected.
More than 17,500 cases and 629 deaths have been reported in the country since the start of the year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The vaccine doses will be transported onboard a plane leaving the Danish capital Copenhagen on Wednesday evening and are due to arrive at Kinshasa's international airport on Thursday at 1100 GMT.
