Germany to donate 100,000 mpox vaccines to Africa

FRANKFURT, Germany — Germany will donate 100,000 mpox vaccine doses to countries in Africa suffering from a surge in cases, the government said Monday.

The vaccines will come from German military stocks and will be made available “in the short term”, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters.

The aim is “to support in solidarity the international efforts to contain mpox on the African continent”, he said.

The move will see Germany donate nearly all of its mpox vaccine reserves, which total around 118,000 doses, according to the defence ministry.

Germany was also providing financial support to the World Health Organisation (WHO) as well as supporting partners in Africa through the Gavi vaccine alliance, Hebestreit said.

In the medium term, Germany would work with European partners to help the African Union set up local vaccine production, he added.

The WHO this month declared the surge of mpox cases from the Democratic Republic of Congo to other African nations to be a global health emergency. It has also called for greater production and sharing of vaccines.

France announced last week it was donating 100,000 mpox vaccine doses to affected countries, while the US has said it would donate 50,000 doses to DR Congo.

While mpox has been known for decades, a new more deadly and more transmissible strain — known as Clade 1b — has driven the recent outbreak.

The virus has swept across DR Congo, killing more than 570 people so far this year. Outbreaks have been reported in other countries such as Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda since July. The first case in Europe was reported in Sweden earlier this month.

The virus can spread from animals to humans but also between humans through close physical contact.