Nsimire Nakaziba 34, pricks the rashes on her sister Sifa Mwakasisi, 32, to relieve pain inside a tent where she is undergoing treatment against mpox in Kavumu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on Aug. 29.Arlette Bashizi/Reuters
Canada is considering a donation of up to 200,000 doses of mpox vaccines from its large domestic stockpile to help support the global battle against the fast-growing outbreak of the viral infection, The Globe and Mail has learned.
An alarming surge of mpox deaths was reported on Thursday by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, with 107 new deaths in the past week, bringing the total number of deaths to 724 this year, primarily among children. It also reported 3,160 new mpox cases, bringing the total to more than 26,500 this year.
The federal government has been under heavy pressure to join other countries that have already begun sharing their mpox vaccine stockpiles with African countries. The United States announced its first donation – 50,000 doses of the vaccine – more than three weeks ago. France, Germany, Spain and others have also announced their own donations recently, and many of these vaccines have begun arriving in Africa this month.
African health officials say the continent is in desperate need of mpox vaccines, with an estimated four million doses needed over the next six months. But with the vaccine priced as high as US$140 per dose, few African governments can afford to buy them, and most are relying on donations.
Officials in Ottawa have been discussing a possible vaccine donation for weeks, but no final decision has been reached. A federal official, whom The Globe is not naming because they are not authorized to speak to the media, said the government is close to a decision that could involve a donation of as many as 200,000 doses. A donation of this size would not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in Canada, the official said.
The government has declined to disclose the size of Canada’s mpox vaccine stockpile. But it signed a US$470-million contract in 2022 to acquire large quantities of the vaccine, and it also had earlier supply contracts with the same manufacturer, Denmark-based Bavarian Nordic, which makes the world’s most widely used mpox vaccine.
In its 2023 annual report, Bavarian Nordic said Canada and the United States “remain our single largest customers.” Its financial report showed that Canada was the company’s second-biggest source of revenue outside Denmark.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly asked countries with vaccine stockpiles to share their supply with the African countries that urgently need the doses. The government of Spain has asked European countries to donate 20 per cent of their vaccine stockpiles to help Africa.
Based on publicly available information, Canada has a stockpile of at least two million mpox vaccine doses, according to Adam Houston, medical policy and advocacy adviser at Doctors Without Borders Canada. If this is correct, the government’s potential donation would represent about 10 per cent of Canada’s stockpile.
“It would be great to see Canada committing doses to the global response, given that need still greatly outstrips supply,” Mr. Houston told The Globe on Wednesday.
“It remains disappointing that Canada has not yet done so, when vaccines from the United States and the European Union have already been delivered,” he said.
“Canada has a history of making belated commitments to share its excess supplies of scarce medical products only after other countries have done so; this happened during COVID-19, and for H1N1 before that. More transparency around Canada’s stockpiles, as well as the government’s mechanisms for determining what is surplus and when it can be shared, would help Canada lead rather than follow on vaccine equity.”