Festering troubles

The Democratic Republic of Congo struggles to contain mpox amid vaccine delays, conflict and fragile healthcare.

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DESPITE BEING the epicenter of the mpox outbreak that has infected over 103,000 people across 122 countries since January 2022, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) received its first batch of vaccines on September 5— nearly two years after the US and European nations began stockpiling them following their own cases.

So far, DRC has received 99,000 doses from the EU, with another 110,000 doses expected soon. However, these figures fall far short of the 3 million doses officials estimate are needed to bring the outbreak under control (see "The politics and economics of mpox', p44-45). Nigeria, the only other African country to secure vaccines, has managed to receive just 10,000 doses.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared mpox a public health emergency twice in the past three years-first between July 2022 and May 2023, due to its rapid spread outside Africa, and again on August 14, 2024, following a surge in cases across Africa, largely driven by mutations in the virus.

The mpox virus is categorised into two main clades: I, endemic to Central Africa, and II, which was previously known as the West African clade. Both have two subclades a and b. Clade IIb drove the 2022 global outbreak. The current spike in cases, however, is largely attributed to the more virulent clade Ib, which spreads through close contact and contaminated surfaces.