Congo receives long-awaited mpox vaccine doses

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00:0099,100 doses of the Mpox vaccine have landed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

00:07It is the first shipment to kick-start the vaccine campaign, with the second expected

00:11on Saturday.

00:12The European Union Health Authority, which donated the doses, says they need to be distributed

00:17fast.

00:18According to our data, the vaccines are effective, but as we saw during the COVID-19 crisis,

00:24there were many mutations of the virus.

00:27The more people are contaminated, the greater the chance of mutation, so we need to act

00:32quickly.

00:33Over 19,000 cases and more than 650 deaths have been reported since the start of the

00:40year.

00:41And three weeks ago, the World Health Organization declared it a global emergency.

00:46The viral illness, which can cause a fever, muscle aches and boil-like skin lesions, is

00:51transmitted to humans by infected animals, but can be passed from human to human through

00:56close physical contact.

00:58And it is now present in 16 countries on the African continent.

01:03The last global Mpox outbreak was in 2022, which prompted a subsequent vaccine drive.

01:09Now leaders are optimistic it will prove as effective with this new, more contagious and

01:14deadliest strain, CLART1.

01:17Among the measures to respond to Mpox, we need vaccines, vaccines that have proved their

01:22worth because they've already been used on a massive scale since 2022.

01:27More than 400,000 people have already been vaccinated in Europe and in the US.

01:32Some 380,000 doses have been promised by Western partners, falling significantly short of the

01:38three million doses authorities say are required to end the outbreak in the Congo.

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