According to the Spanish embassy, the doses arrived in Angola on Friday and the transport was financed by the European Commission's Health, Emergency, Preparedness and Response Authorities (HERA).
“This operation is part of the European Union (EU) support for the efforts of African countries for the prompt detection and containment to mitigate the risk of the disease spreading,” the statement said, highlighting that Spain also donated 34,000 doses to the DR Congo and other EU member states.
The Spanish ambassador to Angola, Manuel Lejarreta, and the EU ambassador to Angola, Rosário Bento, received the aforementioned batch of vaccines at the 4 de Fevereiro International Airport in Luanda, accompanied by technicians from the Ministry of Health and the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The mpox epidemic continues to surge in Africa, where this year an average of 3,000 cases have been reported per week, the African Union (AU) public health agency warned in April.
Africa has reported 117,678 suspected cases and 26,927 laboratory-confirmed cases in just over 20 countries across the continent since January 2024.
So far, 1,709 deaths have been recorded, the vast majority in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo), Angola's neighboring nation, according to the AU health agency.
Thus, DRCongo remains the epicenter of the epidemic, with 90,406 suspected cases and 17,262 confirmed cases.
MPOX is an infectious disease that can cause a painful rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever, headaches, muscle aches, back pain, and lack of energy.
