Additional $35 Million in Assistance Targets Clade 1b Mpox Outbreak

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced up to an additional $35 million in emergency health assistance to bolster response efforts for the clade Ib mpox outbreak in Central and Eastern Africa, pending U.S. Congressional Notification.

This new commitment on August 20, 2024, brings the total U.S. government support for the affected countries in the region to more than $55 million in response to the ongoing mpox outbreak. 

USAID support includes assistance with surveillance, diagnostics, risk communication, community engagement, infection prevention and control, case management, and vaccination planning and coordination. 

The USAID support includes donating 50,000 doses of the third-generation JYNNEOS® (MVA-BN®, IMVAMUNE®) mpox / smallpox vaccine to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the country most severely impacted by the outbreak.

Since 2023, this mpox outbreak has extended beyond the DRC, with several other countries in the region reporting cases in 2024, including countries where mpox has historically not been reported. 

The current mpox outbreak differs in disease severity from the global clade II outbreak that began in May 2022, impacting the United States.