Congo set to receive first mpox vaccines to address new global emergency

A health worker walks past a mpox treatment centre in Munigi, eastern Congo (Moses Sawasawa/AP)

Congo will receive the first vaccine doses to address its mpox outbreak next week from the US, the country’s health minister said on Monday, days after the World Health Organisation declared mpox outbreaks in Africa a global emergency.

Mpox cases have been confirmed among children and adults in more than a dozen African countries, and a new form of the virus is spreading.