On Nov. 6, 2024, the World Health Organization announced that the Access and Allocation Mechanism (AAM) for mpox had allocated an initial 899,000 vaccine doses for 9 countries across the African region that are hit hard by the current mpox surge.

The 9 countries included the Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. The largest number of doses – 85% of the allocation – went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the most affected country, reporting four out of every five laboratory-confirmed cases in Africa this year.

These doses come from Canada, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain, as well as the European Union Health Emergency Response Authority), and the Unites States of America.

Nineteen countries in Africa reported mpox in 2024, many of them newly affected by the viral disease. The epicentre of the outbreak was the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with over 38,000 suspected cases and over 1000 deaths reported to date. Over 5.85 million vaccine doses were expected to be available to the Mpox Vaccines AAM by the end of 2024, including the nearly 900 000 allocated doses.