Mpox: No plan to impose travel restrictions on Africans, says U.S.

WHO clears way for vaccine use in Africa

The United States of America (U.S.) has denied plans to impose travel restrictions on individuals arriving from African countries due to the rising cases of monkeypox (mpox).

The US Global AIDS Coordinator and Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy, John Nkengasong, stated this, yesterday while addressing the issue during an online press briefing.

This was as the World Health Organisation (WHO) authorised the first vaccine against mpox, a decision announced in such haste at the weekend that it caught even the head of the company that makes the vaccine by surprise.

“The U.S. does not plan to put in place travel restrictions for people travelling from Africa. That is a rumour. So, we do not, at this point, think that is going to happen,” Nkengasong stated.

The ambassador’s remarks were made to quell concerns that the US might reinstate travel policies like those introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, including mandatory vaccinations for travellers. He emphasised that the rumours were unfounded and that the US government was not considering such actions.

The coordinator further noted that the US would continue to work with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the WHO to ensure the spread of lethal outbreaks of mpox in Africa did not develop into a pandemic. He also promised additional $35 million in support to fight mpox.

“The U.S. is mobilising additional resources. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) just announced $35 million, and we will stay committed until we bring this outbreak under control, in collaboration, of course, with others: WHO and Africa CDC,” he noted.

WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, had declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern twice, the first time in May 2022 and the second time in August 2024.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is bearing the brunt of this crisis, shockingly accounting for 96.3 per cent of all cases and 97 per cent of deaths continent-wide this year alone.

WHO had come under increasing criticism for declaring a global public health emergency for mpox last month without giving a vaccine that prequalification stamp of approval, or a more provisional form of approval called emergency use authorisation.

Bavarian Nordic first submitted its safety and effectiveness data on the vaccine, called Jynneos, to WHO in 2023. WHO had defended its slow pace of review, saying that it needed to subject the vaccine to careful study because it, and two others that had been used to protect against mpox, were originally designed as smallpox immunisation, and because delivering it in low-resource settings such as Central Africa would involve factors different from those relating to its use in high-income countries.

But at the weekend, WHO suddenly said it was authorising the shot.

“This first prequalification of a vaccine against mpox is an important step in our fight against the disease, both in the context of the present outbreaks in Africa and in future,” Ghebreyesus stated. Chief Executive of Bavarian Nordic, Paul Chaplin, said he was among the many caught off-guard.

“We have got there eventually; I don’t know quite how,” he said. “But it is good news. It is going to make the regulatory pathway much easier.”Mpox was first identified more than 50 years ago in DRC and has been endemic there ever since. While the global spread that started in 2022 waned in 2023, people in Congo have continued to become infected. A new version of the virus, one that is sexually transmissible, was identified there in 2023, and there have been more than 21,000 suspected mpox cases, and 700 deaths, this year.

However, no vaccine has yet been publicly administered in Congo. About 245,000 donated shots, from the European Union (EU), U.S. and Bavarian Nordic, began to arrive in the capital, Kinshasa, last week. The Congolese government has said it hoped to begin distribution by October 2.

The Jynneos prequalification decision vaulted over a planned meeting next week of a WHO committee that is set to evaluate the vaccine for emergency use.