DRC: WHO delivers 14 tons of medical supplies, equipment to tackle mpox
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday 7 September 2024 delivered 14 metric tons of medical supplies and equipment to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to support infection prevention and control and case management for the ongoing response to halt the mpox outbreak.
The supplies consist of personal protective equipment, tents, treatments and other medical supplies, sufficient to support clinical care for 16 800 people for three months. The consignment was shipped from WHO Emergency Preparedness Hub in Nairobi, Kenya. This is the first of several deliveries to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the coming weeks, the total value of which amounts to US$ 1 million.
“These supplies will ensure health facilities have the critical items needed to provide safe and optimal care to patients, contributing to the ongoing emergency response by the health authorities, with support from WHO and other partners,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the most affected country in the region, WHO is intensifying support to the national authorities. The Organization has deployed experts and leveraging existing national capacity by repurposing more than 400 field staff to support frontline operations mainly related to surveillance, case investigation, contact tracing and community engagement.
A team of vaccine experts is also being deployed to the country to support the planning and rollout of vaccines. Thanks to donation by European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has received 99 000 mpox vaccine doses, with an additional 101 000 expected to be delivered.
Across the region, WHO has provided 2500 starter laboratory kits for 13 countries and pre-positioned 4000 test kits at each emergency hub in Nairobi and Dakar.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is seeing multiple outbreaks of mpox driven by different strains of the virus. The current outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is driven by a new variant of clade I, called clade Ib which is spreading between people, including through sexual transmission. This strain has now been detected in other countries in East and Central Africa: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. It has also been detected among travellers in countries outside Africa.
