UNICEF Launches Emergency Initiative to Secure Mpox Vaccines for Crisis-Hit Nations

 UNICEF has launched an emergency procurement process for mpox vaccines for countries in crisis, working in partnership with Gavi, the Africa CDC, and WHO. This decision is made under other global efforts to fight mpox, especially in countries highly affected by the disease. 

 In the joint press release, the organizations stated that UNICEF recently launched an urgent procurement intended to create supply contracts with the vaccine producers. These agreements enable the procurement of up to 12 million doses in the production band, depending on the production capacity through 2025. Such tender will allow for efficient vaccination once funding, demand, and readiness levels are underway with regulatory approval for vaccines on the tender. 

 This also entails engaging the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Gavi to support sharing existing vaccine stocks from high-income countries. This strategy is created to prevent vaccine waste while delivering vaccines to users promptly, which is not seen in emergency vaccine delivery. 

 Manufacturers who have submitted information to the WHO include Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Sputnik V, Covaxin, and Johnson and Johnson. The agency is assessing information submitted by manufacturers as of 23 August, and an emergency use listing is expected by mid-September. The organization is considering emergency license applications for Bavarian Nordic and Japan’s KM Biologics vaccines, which are crucial in combating mpox outbreaks. 

 The WHO labeled mpox a public health emergency of international concern in early August after an outbreak involving more than 1000 cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with transmission to neighboring countries. The DRC has remained one of the most affected regions, where more than 18,000 people have been reported to have been infected, and 629 people have died in the first half of this year alone. The doctors in the region face challenges presented by the rise in the number of cases and vaccines expected to arrive in the next few days. 

 The spread of mpox has also gone to other parts of the world and different continents, with the clade Ib type of the virus being found in Sweden and Thailand. These cases, therefore, show that the threat is global and requires a collective international effort to address it. 

 WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has strongly urged the delivery of vaccines adeptly to the required parts of the world, especially the impoverished areas hardest hit by the virus. Some of the stakeholders, including UNICEF, Gavi, Africa CDC, and WHO, working together are considered to play an important role in addressing the current crisis and reducing the number of people who die. 

 Thus, the success of this initiative in the wake of the global health response to the mpox outbreak will largely depend on vaccine manufacturers to meet the immediate need and the ability of intergovernmental organizations or agencies in the effective delivery of vaccines to areas of the highest need.