In an effort to aid the nations most affected by the latest pandemic, UNICEF announced on Saturday that it had opened a bid for mpox vaccinations.
“The emergency tender is designed to secure immediate access to available mpox vaccines as well as to expand production,” UNICEF said in a statement issued along with the World Health Organization, the Gavi vaccine alliance and Africa CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention).
“Depending on demand, production capacity of manufacturers and funding, agreements for up to 12 million doses through 2025 can be put in place,” it said.
UNICEF intends to establish conditional supply agreements with vaccine manufacturers under the terms of the emergency offer.
It “will enable UNICEF to purchase and ship vaccines without delay once countries and partners have secured financing, confirmed demand and readiness, and the regulatory requirements for accepting the vaccines are in place” .
On August 14, because to the increase in cases of the novel Clade 1b strain in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that extended to neighboring countries, the WHO issued an international emergency for mpox.
This year, the DRC has seen almost 18,000 suspected cases of mpox, resulting in 629 fatalities.
