The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) yesterday announced an additional $35 million in emergency health assistance for the clade 1 mpox outbreak in Central and East Africa.
In a statement, USAID said the announcement brings the total help for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other affected countries to $55 million and that the new funding is pending congressional notification.
The funding will help USAID continue its close work with affected countries, which includes help with actions such as surveillance, diagnostics, risk communication, and vaccination planning and coordination.
When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) last week, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said the agency had released an initial $1.5 million from its emergency contingency fund and appealed to donor to help fund the rest of the response. He said the WHO’s regional response plan would require an initial $15 million.
On X yesterday, Tedros said the United States has been steadfast in its commitment to address the mpox outbreak. “I hope this inspires others to join in and bring the emergency under control,” he said.
Vaccine, testing developments
An increasing number of counties have stepped forward with mpox vaccine donations. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal yesterday announced that his country will donate 100,000 doses to African countries battling outbreaks, according to Agence France-Presse.
Meanwhile, Roche yesterday announced that it is working with its partners to enhance mpox lab capacity worldwide. It is also providing training for labs across Africa at the Roche Scientific Campus in South Africa and at other locations.
The company also confirmed that its Cobas mpox PCR test, as well as its research-only test kits, can detect the latest mpox variants.
