(Bloomberg) -- African health-care workers fighting the rapid spread of a virulent mpox strain will learn how to effectively scratch under layers of children’s skin to induce an immune response, a method not widely used in inoculation rollouts for decades.
The training is required after Japan agreed to provide the single largest vaccine donation of 3 million doses — along with specialized inoculation needles — to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is the epicenter of multiple outbreaks of the disease.
“It’s really important that when this program is implemented, that we are in a position to be able to vaccinate children there,” Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s executive director for health emergencies, said at a briefing Thursday.
Children are bearing the brunt of the latest mpox outbreaks — those under the age of 15 account for 70% of cases this year, according to Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Unlike a newer vaccine produced by Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic A/S that isn’t yet used in young children, Japan’s LC16 shot was used to immunize more than 50,000 children against smallpox in the 1970s.
Administering the Japanese vaccine is more complex because it requires scratching intradermally between layers of skin using a bifurcated needle and a multiple-puncture technique.
The method, known as scarification, is “quite a skilled technique, and that will take time,” he said, as health workers make sure they can “vaccinate using this old technique that’s very effective.”
LC16 is also seen as a productive post-exposure prophylaxis, said Ngashi Ngongo, Africa CDC’s chief of staff.
“So that’s a little bit different with what we’re seeing with the Bavarian Nordic vaccines,” he said in a separate briefing. “The LC16 is going to fill that gap in terms of access and equity to vaccines.”
The Africa CDC is still working with Japan to determine when the inoculations will arrive and how to conduct a communication campaign in the Congo, while dispensing both the Japanese vaccine and Bavarian Nordic’s shot.
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--With assistance from Naomi Kresge.
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