WHO Approves First Mpox Vaccine: A Public Health Milestone

The World Health Organization (WHO) has for the first time approved a Mpox vaccination.

The statement followed the introduction of the first MVA-BN vaccinations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Since January, the DRC has documented approximately 22,000 cases and 716 deaths due to the virus.

So far, the European Union has sent approximately 200,000 vaccine doses to the DRC, with an additional 50,000 from the United States.

Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is caused by a virus that is transmitted to people by infected animals but can also be spread from person to person by intimate physical contact.

It causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions, and can in some cases be deadly.

On its X handle on Friday, the development is expected to speed up access to the jabs to fight an epidemic raging in Africa.

“This first prequalification of a vaccine against mpox is an important step in our fight against the disease, both in the context of the current outbreaks in Africa, and in future,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

“We now need urgent scale up in procurement, donations and rollout to ensure equitable access to vaccines where they are needed most… to prevent infections, stop transmission and save lives.”

WHO’s prequalification list is used to assess the quality, safety, and efficacy of medical items such as vaccinations, allowing the United Nations and other international organizations to purchase them.

Lower-income countries who lack the resources to conduct their own reviews use the list to speed up purchase approvals.

“The WHO prequalification of the MVA-BN vaccine will help accelerate procurement of the mpox vaccines by governments and international agencies on the frontlines of the ongoing emergency in Africa and beyond,” said Yukiko Nakatani, WHO’s assistant chief in charge of access to medicine and health products.

The WHO declared an international emergency over mpox last month, concerned by the surge in cases of the new Clade 1b strain in the DRC that spread to nearby countries.