Germany to donate 100,000 mpox vaccine shots to contain outbreak in Africa

Germany will donate 100,000 mpox vaccine doses from its military reserves to help address the outbreak in Africa, a government spokesperson announced on Monday. The donation aims to provide immediate assistance to the affected countries.

In addition, Germany will offer financial support to the World Health Organization (WHO) through various mechanisms to combat mpox and assist its African partners via the GAVI vaccine alliance, the spokesperson stated.

Germany currently has about 117,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine, which were acquired in 2022 and are being stored by the military.

A portion of this stock will be retained for the protection of officials travelling abroad, according to a defense ministry spokesperson. Any decision on replenishing the stock will be made separately, he added.

The WHO has declared mpox a global public health emergency following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that spread to neighbouring countries. A new strain of the virus, clade Ib, has raised concerns due to its rapid transmission.

Germany is working to expedite the delivery of the vaccines to the most affected regions, primarily the DRC, Burundi, and other East African nations, a foreign ministry spokesperson noted.