MADRID: Spain on Tuesday said it will donate 500,000 doses of mpox vaccines to countries in central Africa facing a severe outbreak of the disease. This donation represents 20 percent of Spain’s total mpox vaccine reserves, the Spanish health ministry said in a statement.
The Spanish government has not yet specified which central African countries will receive the vaccines or when they will arrive. However, the donation is expected to provide critical support to regions experiencing a surge in mpox cases.
Spain has called on its European Union counterparts to contribute similarly, urging them to donate 20 percent of their own mpox vaccine stockpiles. Spain emphasized that it is crucial to address the outbreak in areas most affected rather than stockpiling vaccines where the disease is not currently a significant problem.
The move comes as France and Germany have also pledged to assist in the global response to the mpox crisis. Both countries have committed to donating 100,000 doses of mpox vaccines each to the affected regions.
Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is an infectious disease caused by a virus that can be transmitted to humans through infected animals and close physical contact with infected individuals. Symptoms of the disease include fever, muscle pains, skin lesions, and, in severe cases, can lead to death.
The recent resurgence of mpox, coupled with the identification of a new strain called Clade 1b in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to issue its highest international alert level on August 14. Since July, outbreaks of mpox have been reported in several central African nations, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
In Europe, Sweden’s Public Health Agency reported its first case of the Clade 1b variant earlier this month. The infected individual had contracted the virus during a visit to an affected African country.
