At least 50,000 doses of smallpox vaccine from the United States has arrived Congo a week after the first batch arrived from the European Union.
Coordinator of the Congolese Committee for the Fight against Monkeypox, Cris Kacita Osako said adults in Equateur, South Kivu and Sankuru, the three provinces most affected will be vaccinated first, starting on October 2nd.
Last week, the first batch of smallpox vaccine arrived in the capital of Congo, the center of the epidemic.
The 100,000 doses of the vaccine were donated by the European Union through HERA, the Union's agency for health emergencies.
These doses represent only a fraction of the three million doses which according to the authorities are needed to put an end to the smallpox epidemic in Congo.
Since the start of 2024, 5,549 cases of smallpox have been confirmed on the continent, with 643 associated deaths, representing a sharp increase in the number of infections and deaths compared with previous years.