Several hundred smallpox vaccines have been administered since Tuesday, September 17, in Rwanda, as part of the first immunization campaign carried out to try to halt the epidemic sweeping Africa, the African Union health agency announced on Thursday. Vaccination in Rwanda began on September 17 and about 300 people at risk have been vaccinated.Addis Ashebere, a spokeswoman for the Africa CDC, told AFP.
These first hundreds of vaccinations have Seven directorates were targeted. (…) Which shares a border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [RDC] »In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, vaccinations will begin, said Negachi Njonjo, the agency's chief of staff and head of the executive office, during a press conference. “First week of October”Jean Kasia, Director General of the Africa CDC, warned: “The Mboks are not under control.”
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) recorded 2,912 new cases, 374 new confirmed cases and 14 deaths on the continent in one week, bringing the total number of detected cases to 29,152, confirmed cases to 6,105 and deaths to 738. In Africa, the epidemic is now spreading to fifteen countries.
The resurgence of smallpox on the continent and the emergence of a new variant (Category 1b) prompted the World Health Organization to raise its highest level of global alert in mid-August. Category 1b has been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, according to the Africa CDC.
MVA-BN vaccine, previously approved by WHO
Smallpox, formerly called monkeypox, is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans, but also between humans, causing fever, muscle pain and skin lesions. So far, about 200,000 doses of the vaccine have been delivered to the DRC by the European Union, and about 50,000 by the United States. The DRC has a population of about 100 million.
The World Health Organization announced on September 13 that it had prequalified the MVA-BN vaccine, allowing specialized UN agencies, such as the Vaccine Alliance and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), but also governments to expedite orders.
who “It will help communities on the front lines of the emergency in Africa and beyond.”The vaccine, manufactured by Bavaria Nordic, can be given to people over 18 years of age as a two-dose injection, four weeks apart, said Yukiko Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines and Health Products.
Available data indicate that the single-dose MVA-BN vaccine given before exposure has an estimated 76% efficacy in protecting people from smallpox, with the two-dose regimen achieving an estimated 82% efficacy, the WHO details, specifying that post-exposure vaccination is less effective than pre-exposure vaccination.
