The Vaccine Alliance, Gavi and Bavarian Nordic has promised to supply African countries affected by the outbreak of Mpox with vaccines, News About Nigeria reports.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Wednesday by the Chief Executive Officer of Gavi, Dr. Sania Nishtar, Gavi.
He noted that an Advance Purchase Agreement to secure 500,000 doses of the Modified Vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic (MVA-BN) mpox vaccine has been made.
The statement also disclosed that the vaccines will be funded by Gavi’s First Response Fund, a new financial mechanism created in June 2024 to provide rapid funding for vaccine purchases during health emergencies.
The statement reads, “The First Response Fund was designed in collaboration with Gavi donors and partners specifically to provide rapid early funding for emergencies such as mpox. Using it today to fund the first direct transaction for vaccines in support of equitable access and the global response, just over a month since mpox was declared a public health emergency, takes us a long way toward our goal of protecting those most at risk.
“We are committed to working with affected governments and our partners to turn these vaccines into vaccinations as quickly and effectively as possible and, over time, to build a global vaccine stockpile if sufficient funding is secured for Gavi’s work through 2030. We thank our donors for enabling us to act rapidly by committing funds to the First Response Fund before an emergency occurred.
“The doses secured through this agreement will significantly increase the availability of mpox vaccines for African countries, and we are pleased that Gavi has selected our MVA-BN vaccine, which has proven highly effective during the global mpox outbreak in 2022.”
Note that a total of 26,544 cases have been reported, of which 5,732 were confirmed and 724 resulted in death, across 15 African Union Member States in all five regions of Africa, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
