Germany will donate 100,000 mpox vaccine doses from its military reserves to help combat the outbreak in Africa, a government spokesperson announced on Monday. This donation is intended to provide immediate relief to the countries most affected by the virus.
Additionally, Germany will extend financial support to the World Health Organization (WHO) and assist its African partners through the GAVI vaccine alliance, according to the spokesperson.
Germany currently holds around 117,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine, which were procured in 2022 and are stored by the military. A portion of these will be kept for the protection of officials traveling abroad, with any decision on replenishing the stock to be made later, a defense ministry spokesperson added.
The WHO declared mpox a global public health emergency following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has spread to neighboring countries. Concerns have grown due to the rapid transmission of a new strain, clade Ib.
Germany is prioritizing the swift delivery of vaccines to the hardest-hit regions, including the DRC, Burundi, and other East African nations, according to a foreign ministry spokesperson.