Africa to receive its first batch of over 50 000 mpox vaccines

2 min read
2 December 2022 | 15:00 CAT

The African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says Africa is set to receive its first batch of 50 000 ‘mpox’ vaccines as a donation from South Korea.

Photo credit: The Toronto Star

According to the CDC, the doses will be administrated to health workers and people living in hard-hit areas. However, no timing was given for the arrival of the doses.

This year, Africa recorded 202 deaths from mpox — formerly known as monkeypox — with a fatality rate of 19.3% across 13 African countries.

Acting CDC Director Ahmed Ogwell said approximately 51 new mpox cases were detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past week. At the same time, Ghana and Nigeria are the other most affected countries in Africa.

This comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the term “mpox” should be used instead of monkeypox to avoid racism and stigmatisation from the existing name.

The United Nations (UN) has also criticised news coverage about the disease, warning that poor reporting can “reinforce homophobic and racist stereotypes and exacerbate stigma”.

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