Liberia is set to receive over 10,000 doses of the MVA-BN mpox vaccine, with health workers, security personnel, and the elderly population identified as priority groups for vaccination.
Liberia was among the countries the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa Center for Disease Control allocated 899,000 doses of the MVA-BN mpox vaccine. The Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda are the 9 other countries expected to receive the vaccine.
These countries reported confirmed cases and willingly accepted the vaccines to help stop the spread of human-to-human, according to Dr. Yuah Nemah, Acting Program Manager, of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) at the Ministry of Health (MOH).
"Liberia has graciously accepted this offer," he said.
Dr. Nemah added the Ministry of Health and its partners have begun developing plans for vaccine distribution, immediate recipient, and storage.
He said an official letter has been sent to the Liberia Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Authority (LMHRA), which is responsible for inspecting all vaccines coming into the country before their arrival.
"So once the vaccine reaches us, we now have to store it under ideal conditions so that it is still potent and still effective when we use it, and then we have to make up plans to distribute it all through the 15 counties of Liberia," Dr. Nemah added.
The WHO and its partners have established the Access and Allocation Mechanism (AAM) to enable countries to have access to vaccines to stop the spread of mpox. According to a statement, over 5.85 million vaccine doses are expected to be available to the Mpox Vaccines AAM by the end of 2024, including the nearly 900,000 allocated doses.
The supply includes contributions from multiple nations and organizations, including 1.85 million dose donations of MVA-BN from the European Union, United States, and Canada, 500 000 doses from Gavi utilizing the First Response Fund, 500 000 doses procured through UNICEF, as well as a further 3 million doses of the LC16 vaccine from Japan. The vaccines are meant to boost the country's ability to fight the mpox disease that was declared a global health emergency by WHO and the Africa CDC in August 2024.
For the first time, mpox was declared a global health emergency in Africa by the WHO and the Africa CDC since it was identified in Copenhagen in 1958. It is transmitted through direct skin-to-skin contact, sexual contact with bodily fluids, or lesions found around the anus, rectum, or vagina from a Mpox-infected person, and through respiratory secretions and droplets. Fever, chills, headaches, swollen lymph nodes, and muscle aches are the most known symptoms.
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In September 2024, Liberia reported its first case since the declaration was made by the WHO and Africa CDC. However, before this time, the country had five cases. Sporadic cases have been reported, with no reported deaths since the first case was announced.
