The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday (Sept 13) it had cleared Bavarian Nordic's mpox vaccine, the first such shot to be approved by the agency for containing the spread of the disease in badly hit African countries.
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00:00The World Health Organization on Friday said it had cleared the mPox vaccine,
00:06produced by Denmark-based biotech company Bavarian Nordic,
00:11for use to contain the spread of the disease in badly hit African countries.
00:16The vaccine is the first that has been approved by the WHO. The approval,
00:21known as a pre-qualification, comes after a new type of the virus spreads from the
00:26Democratic Republic of Congo to several neighbouring countries.
00:30WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the first pre-qualification
00:37of the vaccine is an important step in its fight against the disease.
00:42He said they now need urgent scale-up in procurement,
00:45donations and roll-out to ensure equitable access to the vaccines,
00:50alongside other public health tools to prevent infections and stop the transmission.
00:56The pre-qualification paves the way for developing countries to access the vaccine,
01:01as most of them do not have the resources to examine the efficacy of vaccines.
01:06United Nations agencies also rely on the process before buying medical products.
01:12The vaccine, known as JYNNEOS in the United States, was originally approved as a smallpox shot.
01:19Some of the vaccine have been donated by the European Union to Congo,
01:23where the first round of inoculation is due to begin in early October.