First doses of long-awaited mpox vaccines arrive in DR Congo | DW News

Tens of thousands of mpox vaccines donated by the European Union have arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Central African country with some 100 million inhabitants is at the center of the epidemic declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation.

Some 629 people have died, the majority of them children, according to UNICEF.

More than 18,000 suspected mpox cases have been reported by the authorities.

Multiple public health officials and scientists have criticized the slow arrival of the vaccines.

The WHO took until August to officially start the process needed to give poor countries easy access to large quantities of vaccines via international agencies.

This forced African governments and the Africa CDC to instead request vaccine donations from rich countries.