Germany To Donate 100,000 Mpox Vaccines To Africa
Germany will donate 100,000 mpox vaccine doses to African countries experiencing a surge in cases, the government announced Monday.
According to government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, the vaccines will be obtained from German military stocks and made available “in the short term”.
This is meant “to support in solidarity the international efforts to contain mpox on the African continent”, according to his statement.
Germany will donate nearly all of its mpox vaccine reserves, which total approximately 118,000 doses, according to the defense ministry.
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According to Hebestreit, Germany is also providing financial support to the World Health Organization (WHO) and to African partners through the Gavi vaccine alliance.
In the medium term, Germany will collaborate with European partners to assist the African Union in establishing local vaccine production, he added.
The World Health Organization declared a global health emergency this month due to an increase in mpox cases from the Democratic Republic of Congo to other African countries. It has also called for increased vaccine production and distribution.
Last week, France announced that it would donate 100,000 mpox vaccine doses to affected countries, while the United States has pledged to donate 50,000 doses to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
While mpox has been around for decades, a newer, more lethal, and more transmissible strain known as Clade 1b has driven the current outbreak.
So far, the virus has killed over 570 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this year.
Since July, outbreaks have been reported in countries including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. The first European case was reported in Sweden earlier this month.
The virus can be transmitted from animals to humans, as well as between humans via close physical contact.
Germany To Donate 100,000 Mpox Vaccines To Africa
