Vaccination campaign against smallpox underway in Congo – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

In August, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared smallpox a global health crisis. On Saturday, a major vaccination campaign against the virus started in the million-strong city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 265,000 vaccine doses donated by the EU and the USA will be used. Health personnel first in line A new variant of the viral disease has spread rapidly in parts of Central Africa recently, and Congo is the hardest hit. To date, around 30,000 suspected cases of the virus have been registered in the country. 859 have lost their lives. Health workers are first in the vaccination queue in the Congo. Photo: AUBIN MUKONI / AFP One month after the first smallpox doses arrived in the capital Kinshasa, vaccination is underway in Goma, in the west of the country. It was health personnel who received the first vaccine doses on Saturday. The vaccine program opens for the rest of the population on Monday, reports the AFP news agency. What are m-cups? Smallpox is a zoonosis. This means that it can be transmitted from animals to humans. The virus has mutated to also infect people. The disease involves a rash and fever, and is usually self-limiting. In some cases, the virus has a more serious disease picture, and in rare cases death. There are two variants of the virus: type I (Central African variant) and type II (West African variant). Type II has had a lower mortality rate than subtype I. It is type I that is now ravaging the Congo. Since 2023, there has been a large outbreak of a type I with smallpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The virus spreads both through sexual contact and other close contact. Source: Institute of Public Health – Not enough General Secretary Lindis Hurum of Doctors Without Borders has recently been in Goma and worked in several refugee camps there. She says it is good news that vaccination is underway, but emphasizes that the number of doses is far from sufficient. – We know that the number that is available in general is not enough, says Hurum to news. Lindis Hurum has her temperature checked by a health worker in Goma. She recently came home from the Congo. Photo: Doctors Without Borders In addition, the situation in Goma is particularly difficult, she adds. Around one million people live in refugee camps and many lack clean water and safe sanitary conditions. – Stopping an epidemic is always complex, in Goma I would say it is more complex than most other things I have seen, says Hurum. The first delivery of m-cup vaccines landed in Kinshasa on 5 September. Photo: Justin Makangara / Reuters – Finally underway The government welcomed the vaccine campaign in a press release on Saturday. “Finally, vaccination against mpox is underway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is good for everyone who lives in the area where the outbreak is the biggest, but also to get control,” writes Development Minister Anne Beathe Kristiansen Tvinnereim (Sp) in the press release. A health worker washes his hands at the hospital in Goma. Photo: AUBIN MUKONI / AFP The message states that Norway will continue to invest in the health system, pandemic preparedness and response, in order to respond to new outbreaks and other health crises. According to Tvinnereim, Norway has contributed to the fight against smallpox in several ways, including by contributing to the vaccine alliance Gavi’s new emergency aid fund, to the WHO’s crisis fund and to the World Bank’s pandemic fund. Interested in abroad? Listen to the latest Urix podcast here: Published 05.10.2024, at 22.13 Updated 05.10.2024, at 22.27



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