Goma, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 6th Oct, 2024) The Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicentre of an mpox epidemic, launched a vaccination campaign against the virus on Saturday in the eastern city of Goma, AFP journalists said.
The launch, initially scheduled for last Wednesday, was delayed by three days amid logistical difficulties delivering the vaccines across the sprawling, infrastructure-poor central African country.
The first vaccines were administered to hospital staff, with the program due to target the general population from Monday in the east of the country, where the current outbreak started a year ago.
“As a doctor, I’m on the front line and in constant contact with those who are sick… I want to protect myself,” the first to be vaccinated, Jeannine Muhavi, told journalists.
Local health officials and NGO workers had set up large tents to administer the vaccines, unfurling banners with the message: “mpox exists.”
Romain Muboyayi, chief of staff at the health ministry, said Saturday in Goma the country would lead a “full-out combat” against this “treatable and avoidable disease”.
In a posting on X, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the vaccination campaign adds “a crucial measure to complement ongoing outbreak control efforts and protect lives.”
The DRC has so far received 265,000 vaccine doses, including donations from the United States and European Union.
But it is still waiting for millions more promised doses to arrive from France, Japan and the United States.
Since the start of the year, the country, one of the world’s poorest, has recorded more than 30,000 mpox cases, with 988 deaths, according to Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba.
Seventy percent of the deaths have been children under five.
“It will not be a mass vaccination campaign… the strategy is to vaccinate people most at risk,” Kamba told a press conference Friday in the capital, Kinshasa.
“As you can imagine, in a country of 100 million people, we’re not going to solve the problem with 265,000 doses.”
He said the aim was to target priority groups, such as those with existing health conditions and medical workers.
