New mechanism aims to give all countries faster and more equitable access to vaccines as Africa continues to account for most reported cases
By Bunmi Yekini
A global stockpile of mpox vaccines has been launched to provide countries with faster and more equitable access to doses during outbreaks, international health and humanitarian organisations said.
The stockpile, announced on Aug. 27 and expected to begin operations later this month, will create a long-term mechanism for supplying vaccines to countries responding to mpox outbreaks.
The initiative was approved by the board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance in 2025 and is funded by Gavi. It will be coordinated through the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision, whose partners include the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Médecins Sans Frontières, UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
The mechanism builds on an emergency access and allocation system established in 2024 during the previous global mpox health emergency.
Mpox outbreaks continue to occur worldwide, with the WHO African Region accounting for about two-thirds of reported cases, the organisations said.
Between Jan. 1, 2022 and July 31, 2026, 145 countries and territories reported 190,683 confirmed mpox cases and 529 deaths.
Mpox is a viral disease that spreads mainly through close physical contact, although animal-to-human transmission continues to occur in parts of Africa. The disease can cause severe illness, particularly among children and people with weakened immune systems.
Gavi Chief Executive Sania Nishtar said the stockpile was designed to address inequities exposed during the 2022 mpox outbreak, when lower-income countries struggled to obtain vaccines.
“Any country in the world, not just those with the ability to pay the most, should be able to use this tool to save lives,” she said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the dedicated stockpile would allow countries to obtain vaccines more quickly during outbreaks.
“By establishing a dedicated global stockpile, using an approach that has proven successful for managing other emergency vaccines, we are ensuring that countries can access them more quickly when they need them,” Tedros said.
The International Coordinating Group was established in 1997 to coordinate emergency supplies of vaccines and other medical products during major disease outbreaks. It already manages global emergency vaccine stockpiles for diseases including cholera, meningitis, yellow fever and Ebola.
The inclusion of mpox in the mechanism is expected to provide a more permanent framework for responding to future outbreaks, with vaccines allocated according to public health needs and the potential impact on controlling the disease.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said the initiative would help deliver vaccines rapidly to children, families and communities most at risk.
The launch marks a shift from the temporary arrangements put in place during the 2024 mpox emergency towards a longer-term global system intended to ensure that vaccine access is not determined by a country’s ability to pay.