The World Health Organization has approved the first mpox vaccine for children, a decision experts hope will help make vaccination more widely available to the people most affected by the outbreak of the disease in the Congo and elsewhere in Africa.
In a statement late Tuesday, the UN health organization said it had approved the mpox vaccine made by Japanese company KM Biologics for use in children over one year of age as a single dose.
Earlier this month, the charity Save the Children said that crimes against children under the age of 18 have increased by more than 130 percent in Congo, noting that there are now more than 25,000 suspected cases.
The charity said that children are almost four times more likely to die from the new type of mpox that was first discovered in eastern Congo earlier this year. Mpox, which is related to smallpox, usually causes symptoms including fever, rash, sores and fatigue.
“Children are at high risk of mpox,” said Dr Katia Vieira de Moraes LaCasse of Save The Children’s in a statement. “They test by touch and taste, they don’t always understand health guidance and they have weaker immune systems than adults.”
Scientists have previously noted that smallpox appears to disproportionately affect children in Congo and Burundi, which account for more than 90% of all smallpox cases in Africa’s current outbreak.
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The WHO had previously approved the mpox vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic for people aged 18 and over, but said that the vaccine can be used in young people, if doctors think that the benefits outweigh the possible risks, given the lack of data in children and other groups. pregnant women.
Last week, the WHO said mpox cases in the Congo region where the new, highly contagious strain appeared to be “plateauing,” as cases were increasing in other areas, including Burundi and Uganda.
So far, about 50,000 people in the Congo have been vaccinated against mpox with a vaccine developed by Bavarian Nordic.
WHO said that Japan has announced that it will donate approximately three million doses of shots made by KM Biologics in Congo. It was not clear if the doses had arrived.
On Friday, the WHO is calling its expert committee to determine whether the outbreak of the disease in Congo and other places in Africa is still a global emergency, a declaration made by the UN organization for the first time in August.
So far, Africa has reported more than 46,000 suspected cases of smallpox in the current outbreak, including 1,081 deaths.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
