France to donate 100,000 mpox vaccines as it readies centers at home

France has pledged to donate 100,000 doses of the mpox vaccine to countries facing severe outbreaks, according to Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Tuesday. This donation will be made through the European Union as part of France's efforts to combat the ongoing international health crisis.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the surge in mpox cases across Africa as an international health emergency. In response, the United States has also committed to donating 50,000 doses of the mpox vaccine to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of the hardest-hit nations.

The WHO has emphasized the urgent need for a significant increase in vaccine production, stating that vaccination campaigns must be prioritized in affected regions. Last week, the African Union's health agency announced plans to deploy approximately 200,000 vaccines across Africa. This deployment is made possible through agreements with the European Union and Bavarian Nordic, a Danish pharmaceutical company whose mpox vaccine received approval in 2019.

In France, 232 vaccination centers have been prepared to respond to any potential outbreak, though no cases of mpox have been reported in the country so far. Attal, in a post on the X social media platform, assured that France is "ready to face all scenarios and all risks."

Meanwhile, Sweden recently reported its first case of the more dangerous Clade 1b variant of mpox, marking the first such case in Europe. The patient had contracted the virus during a visit to an affected African nation.

The situation in Africa remains dire, with the virus sweeping through the DRC, resulting in over 570 deaths this year alone. Since July, outbreaks have also been reported in neighboring countries including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.