GOMA, Congo — Congolese authorities Saturday began vaccinations against mpox, nearly two months after the outbreak, which spread from Congo to several African countries and beyond, was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization.

The 265,000 doses donated to Congo by the European Union and the U.S. were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been overstretched, struggling to contain the new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox.

Congo, with about 30,000 suspected mpox cases and 859 deaths, accounts for more than 80% of all cases and 99% of all deaths reported in Africa this year. All of the Central African nation’s 26 provinces have recorded mpox cases.

Although most mpox infections and deaths recorded in Congo are in children under age 15, the doses being administered are only meant for adults and will be given to at-risk populations and front-line workers, Health Minister Roger Kamba said this week.

“Strategies have been put in place by the services in order to vaccinate all targeted personnel,” Muboyayi Chikaya, the minister’s chief of staff, said as he kicked off the vaccination campaign.

At least 3 million doses of the vaccine approved for use in children are expected from Japan in the coming days, Kamba added.

Mpox, also known as monkeypox, had been spreading mostly undetected for years in Africa before the disease prompted the 2022 global outbreak that saw wealthy countries quickly respond with vaccines from their stockpiles while Africa received only a few doses despite pleas from its governments.

More than 34,000 suspected cases and 866 deaths from the virus have been recorded across 16 countries in Africa this year. That marks a 200% increase compared to the same period last year, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, access to vaccines remains a challenge. The continent of 1.4 billion people has only secured a commitment for 5.9 million doses of mpox vaccines, expected to be available from October through December, Dr. Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa CDC, told reporters last week. Congo remains a priority, he added.

At the vaccination drive in Goma, Dr. Jean Bruno Ngenze, the WHO representative in the province, warned that North Kivu is at risk of a major outbreak due to the “promiscuity observed in the camps” for displaced people, as one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises caused by armed violence unfolds there.

The news of the vaccination program brought relief among many in Congo, especially in hospitals that had been struggling to manage the outbreak.

“If everyone could be vaccinated, it would be even better to stop the spread of the disease,” said Dr. Musole Mulambamunva Robert, the medical director of Kavumu Hospital, one of the mpox treatment centers in eastern Congo. — Agencies