Mpox vaccines have been administered in Africa for the first time, with several hundred high-risk individuals vaccinated in Rwanda, the African Union’s disease control centre announced on Thursday.

The first 300 doses were administered on Tuesday near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, a spokesperson for the AU’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) told AFP.

The DRC has been the worst-affected country, with nearly 22,000 cases and more than 700 deaths linked to the virus between January and August.

During a call with reporters, Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya stated that vaccinations would begin in the DRC 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 emphasised 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.

PUNCH