Concern as Kenya yet to okay mpox vaccine

Kenya has not approved any Mpox vaccine for emergency use, to stop the disease from spreading.

Currently, just two WHO-approved Mpox vaccines are being used and in Africa, only Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo have approved them.

Kenya requires makers of the vaccines to register them with the Pharmacy and Poisons Board but the approval is expedited for emergency use.

The vaccines being used are MVA-BN, produced by Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic and Japan's LC16.

Ministry of Health said currently, the country is concentrating on surveillance and testing suspected cases.

Public Health PS Mary Muthoni said so far, only one Kenyan, who has already recovered, has tested positive for Mpox.

Muthoni said health officers at the ports of entry have screened 302, 436 people.

However, most suspected cases have been identified from the contacts of the first patient.

“Cumulatively, 29 suspected cases have been identified. Of these, 23 have tested negative for Mpox, while six cases are pending confirmation from the reference Laboratory,” Muthoni said.

One woman from Kiambu county was suspected to have Mpox.

“Notably, today, we received samples from a suspected Mpox case at Vineyard Hospital in Kiambu county. Currently, the patient is under isolation and management. We will provide timely updates as we receive more information,” she said on Saturday.

Kenya declared the Mpox outbreak on July 31 following the confirmation of one case in Taveta subcounty, Taita Taveta county. The patient has since been discharged from Taveta Sub-County Hospital.

At the global level, the WHO last week issued an invitation for manufacturers of mpox vaccines to submit an Expression of Interest for Emergency Use Listing.

“WHO is requesting manufacturers to submit data to ensure that the vaccines are safe, effective, of assured quality and suitable for the target populations,” the organisation said.

The EUL procedure is an emergency use authorisation process, specifically developed to expedite the availability of unlicensed medical products like vaccines that are needed in public health emergency situations. This is a time-limited recommendation, based on a risk-benefit approach.

Granting of EUL will accelerate vaccine access particularly for low-income countries such as Kenya,  which have not yet issued their own national regulatory approval. EUL enables partners, including Gavi and Unicef to procure vaccines for distribution.

Kenya will benefit from a Sh2 billion fund that WHO is putting together to fight the spread of Mpox.

The organisation said it anticipates an immediate funding requirement of at least $15 million (about Sh1.9 billion) to support surveillance, preparedness and response activities.

Most of the support will go to African countries, the epicentre of the current outbreak.

“We have released about $1.5 million (about Sh193.5 million) from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies and we plan to release more in the coming days. We are also appealing to donors to fund the rest of the response plan,” said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom.

Most people with Mpox get a rash and recover without treatment after a few weeks. In rare cases, people can become extremely sick and die.

On Wednesday, WHO said the increasing spread of Mpox in Africa constitutes a global health emergency, warning a deadlier version of the virus might spill broadly across international borders.

Dr Tedros said there have been more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths in Africa this year, which exceeds last year’s figures.

“WHO has been working on the Mpox outbreak in Africa and raising alarm that this should concern us all,” he said.

In the past month, more than 100 laboratory-confirmed cases of the deadly clade 1b have been reported in four countries neighbouring the DRC that have not reported Mpox before: Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.

Experts believe the cases could be more as a large proportion of clinically compatible cases have not been tested.

WHO said part of the money being raised will support countries to access vaccines and develop strategies to roll them out.