The South Korean Government is set to donate 50,000 doses of the Monkeypox (Mpox) vaccines to the African Union. This will be Africa’s first weapon against the outbreak ever since it began.
In July, the U.N. health agency designated monkey pox as a global emergency and appealed to the world to support African countries. Further, they did this to avoid repeating the catastrophic vaccine inequity that plagued the outbreak of COVID-19.
Africa Centres for Disease Control acting director, Dr. Ahmed Ogwel revealed the categories to receive top priority. He said health workers and those living in the most affected areas will be given first priority.
“Our criteria will look at countries that are reporting a lot of cases, deaths and whether they have the capacity to deliver the vaccines to where it is required,” Dr. Ogwel said in a virtual press briefing.
13 out of the 55 African countries are currently dealing with an active outbreak of monkeypox which is now known as the Mpox. Most of these cases have been registered in Nigeria, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The CDC also revealed its concern about the accelerated spike in cases in DR Congo. In the past week alone, the country has registered 51 new cases and four deaths.
Mpox is a known epidemic in west and central Africa. But until the disease caused unusual outbreaks in Europe and USA, health officials hadn’t given vaccines a single thought. So far, Africa has reported 1,047 new cases and 202 deaths.
