Jennifer Rigby
LONDON (Reuters) – Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have approved the use of two types of polio vaccine to tackle rising infections and a dangerous new strain of the virus in the country.
Congo has reported 20,000 cases of MPOX and more than 1,000 deaths since the beginning of last year, mostly among children.
The disease is a viral infection that spreads through close contact and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. Most cases are mild, but it can be fatal.
This week, the World Health Organisation and scientists warned that a new, more deadly variant of the virus was spreading in South Kivu province in the Republic of Congo.
Regulators have issued emergency use authorizations for both Bayern Nordic’s vaccine, Jynneos, and LC16, made by KM Biologics, according to documents and sources close to the process.
Congo, one of the world’s poorest countries, first identified cases of MPOX in 1970, but no vaccine or treatment has ever been available to tackle the disease outside of clinical trials.
In 2022, when an outbreak of the less severe MPOX strain spread globally, both tools were widely available in European countries and the United States.
In the recent outbreak in Congo, the response has been hampered by domestic and international regulatory barriers, lack of funding, competing disease outbreaks, and stigma.
Sania Nishtar, chief executive of the Vaccine Alliance Gavi, told Reuters last week that the company was ready to use COVID-19-era protocols to facilitate vaccine donations from the United States and Japan once approval is given. A Bavarian Nordic spokesman confirmed the approval in Congo on Wednesday. KM Biologics said in an emailed statement that it was considering potential vaccine supplies to Congo but had no other information to share.
Congolese authorities have approved the vaccine, but Gavi, which funds vaccine purchases for low-income countries that cannot afford them on their own, cannot buy the vaccine without “prequalification,” a form of approval, from the World Health Organization.
If approval is not granted, Gavi will have to rely on donated vaccines.
A WHO spokesman said the agency was working with vaccine manufacturers on the approval process and urged countries to continue with their approvals and provide the WHO with more data to move the process forward.
Other challenges in tackling the epidemic in Congo include the stigma surrounding the disease, which is spread through close contact, including sexual contact.
Chris Kashita, head of MPOX operations in Congo, told Reuters that funding was also an issue.
He said $84 million is needed to reach the states most at risk, but only $8 million has been raised.
(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby and Sonia Rowley; Editing by Barbara Lewis)