Spain announced plans on Tuesday to donate 500,000 doses of the Mpox vaccine to Central African countries grappling with a surge in cases. This donation represents 20 percent of Spain’s total Mpox vaccine reserves, according to a statement from the health ministry. However, the ministry did not specify which countries would receive the vaccines or when the shipments would arrive.
In its statement, Spain also called on fellow European Union nations to follow its lead by donating 20 percent of their Mpox vaccine stockpiles. The government emphasized that hoarding vaccines in areas without outbreaks is counterproductive.
Following Spain’s lead, France and Germany have each pledged to donate 100,000 doses to regions battling the disease.
Formerly known as monkeypox, Mpox is a viral disease transmitted from animals to humans and can spread through close physical contact between humans. Symptoms include fever, muscle pain, and skin lesions, with an increasing number of cases resulting in death.
The World Health Organization raised its alert level to the highest international status on August 14 after the detection of a new strain of the virus, Clade 1b, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since July, outbreaks have been reported in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
Although no Mpox cases have been recorded in Spain, Sweden’s Public Health Agency recently reported the first European case of the Clade 1b variant. The infected individual had traveled to an affected African country.
