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Congo Authorities Request Mpox Vaccines from Japan

A patient has his temperature taken at the Mpox treatment center at Nyiragongo General Referral Hospital, north of Goma on August 17, 2024. (AFP)
A patient has his temperature taken at the Mpox treatment center at Nyiragongo General Referral Hospital, north of Goma on August 17, 2024. (AFP)
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Congo Authorities Request Mpox Vaccines from Japan

A patient has his temperature taken at the Mpox treatment center at Nyiragongo General Referral Hospital, north of Goma on August 17, 2024. (AFP)
A patient has his temperature taken at the Mpox treatment center at Nyiragongo General Referral Hospital, north of Goma on August 17, 2024. (AFP)

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has requested Japan for supplies of mpox vaccines and syringes amid the worst outbreaks of the disease in the central African country.

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is preparing to provide the supplies to the DRC, in cooperation with the World Health Organization and other partners, it said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Monday.

The ministry "intends to provide as much support as possible", Masano Tsuzuki, section chief of its division of infectious disease prevention and control, said.

Japan-based KM Biologics is one of the manufacturers of an mpox vaccine. Denmark's Bavarian Nordic makes another vaccine, called Jynneos, for the disease. Japan holds a stockpile of the KM Biologics vaccine.

Outside clinical trials, neither of the shots have ever been available in Congo or across Africa, where the disease has been endemic for decades.

Last week, the WHO declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years as the outbreak in DRC spread to neighboring countries.

Mpox, a viral infection that causes pus-filled lesions and flu-like symptoms, is usually mild but can kill. Two strains are now spreading in Congo — the endemic form of the virus, clade I, and a new offshoot called clade Ib.

The virus transmits through close physical contact, including sexual contact, but unlike previous global pandemics such as COVID-19 there is no evidence it spreads easily through the air.

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German Warships Await Orders on Crossing Taiwan Strait

Sailors line the deck of the German frigate F222 Baden-Wuerttemberg in New York City, US, May 22, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
Sailors line the deck of the German frigate F222 Baden-Wuerttemberg in New York City, US, May 22, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
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German Warships Await Orders on Crossing Taiwan Strait

Sailors line the deck of the German frigate F222 Baden-Wuerttemberg in New York City, US, May 22, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
Sailors line the deck of the German frigate F222 Baden-Wuerttemberg in New York City, US, May 22, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

Two German warships await orders from Berlin, their commander said, to determine whether next month they will be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the Taiwan Strait, drawing a rebuke from Beijing.
While the U.S. and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the narrow strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy's first passage through the strait since 2002.
China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180-km (110 miles) wide waterway that divides the two sides and is part of the South China Sea. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.
The Taiwan Strait is a major trade route through which about half of global container ships pass, and both the United States and Taiwan say it's an international waterway.
"The decision has not been taken yet," the commander of the naval task group, Rear Admiral Axel Schulz, told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding the weather would play a role.
"We are showing our flag here to demonstrate that we stand by our partners and friends, our commitment to the rules-based order, the peaceful solution of territorial conflicts and free and secure shipping lanes."
Asked about the German ships' potential passage, China's foreign ministry said Taiwan was an internal Chinese affair and the key to stability was opposing Taiwan's independence.
"China has always been opposed to the undermining of China's territorial sovereignty and security under the guise of freedom of navigation," ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.
Before their possible passage through the strait next month, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main plan to call in Tokyo on Tuesday. They will also make stops in South Korea and the Philippines.
They will take part in exercises in the region with France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and the United States.
Over the last four years, Beijing's military has increased its activities in the strait.
EXPANDING MILITARY PRESENCE
Sailings through the waterway by foreign warships, especially American, are regularly condemned by Beijing, which says such missions "undermine peace and stability" in the region.
Germany, for whom both China and Taiwan, with its huge chip industry, are major trade partners, has joined other Western nations in expanding its military presence in the region as their alarm has grown over Beijing's territorial ambitions.
In 2021, a German warship sailed through the South China Sea, for the first time in almost 20 years.
Last month, the Luftwaffe deployed fighter jets to Japan for the first joint drills there.
Schulz said he was not planning for any specific security measures should the warships under his command cross the Taiwan Strait, calling it a "normal passage" similar to sailing through the English Channel or the North Sea.
However, he anticipated any passage would be closely monitored.
"I expect the Chinese navy and potentially the coastguard or maritime militia to escort us," he said, describing this as common practice.