GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, is set to buy 500,000 doses of the Bavarian Nordic Mpox vaccine as part of its efforts to tackle the outbreak in parts of Africa.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, GAVI said it made an advance purchase agreement to secure the shots and have them supplied to African countries affected by the outbreak of the Mpox virus.
According to the group, the vaccine purchase will be funded by GAVI’s first response fund, a new financial mechanism established to help secure funds for health emergencies in June.
The global vaccine alliance stated that Bavarian Nordic will be ready to provide vaccines, as soon as the arrangements for distribution across Africa have been finalised with the United Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
UNICEF, a UN agency that works in partnership with GAVI will be responsible for distributing the vaccines to the countries or regions in need.
However, GAVI affirmed that the doses will be supplied to Africa in 2024.
Speaking, the Gavi CEO, Sania Nishtar, said the group is focused on supporting African leaders to tackle the spread of infectious diseases in their countries by providing vaccines that would be administered to the citizens within a short time frame.
She said, “We are committed to working with affected governments and our partners to turn these vaccines into vaccinations as quickly and effectively as possible and, over time, to build a global vaccine stockpile if sufficient funding is secured for Gavi’s work through 2030.
“We thank our donors for enabling us to act rapidly by committing funds to the First Response Fund before an emergency occurred.”
Mrs Nishtar added that the First Response Fund was designed in collaboration with Gavi donors and partners specifically to provide rapid early funding for emergencies such as mpox.
“Using it today to fund the first direct transaction for vaccines in support of equitable access and the global response, just over a month since mpox was declared a public health emergency, takes us a long way towards our goal of protecting those most at risk,” she said
The recent Mpox outbreak first began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in November 2023 before eventually spreading to several other African countries including Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.
The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has recorded over 26,544 suspected cases and 5,732 confirmed cases across 15 African countries.
Also, at least 724 deaths have been recorded so far. Only DR Congo and Nigeria have received doses of the vaccine.
