The initiative aims to limit the spread of preventable diseases such as polio, measles and yellow fever, which remains a sustained threat in difficult to reach areas.
Speedy Answer
There were 79 outboard motors, two speedboats, 14 motorcycles and other important equipment worth $ 750,000 to the country’s public health ministry to expand vaccination campaigns in 89 health zones in nine provinces, the agency said in a news announcement on Tuesday (in French).
“These boats and vehicles allow health workers to quickly reach children and communities that have long been cut off from important services“Said Boureima Hama Sambo, representative of the DRC.
“This will significantly reduce the number of unanswered vaccinations and ensure that no child becomes vulnerable to diseases that we can prevent.”
This will significantly reduce the number of unanswered vaccinations and ensure that no child is left to vulnerable to diseases that we can prevent
– Dr. Bourima Hama Sambo, who representative
Combating preventable diseases
The Congo River and its many side elves make up a large network of isolated islands and remote settlements, especially in provinces such as one adequate watch, Mongala, Tanganyika and Tshopo.
Many of these areas host a large number of unvaccinated children, leading to repeated outbreaks of polio, measles and yellow fever, according to WHO.
In 2024, DRC confirmed 25 cases of circulating variant poliovirus (types 1 and 2) and reported more than 102,500 suspected measles casesresulting in over 2,200 deaths. Meningitis is still a major problem with 5,837 suspected cases and 465 deaths last year.
The WHO and the DRC authorities have worked to tackle these challenges through mass immunization campaigns.
“Improving the availability of vaccines and other important health supplies in the expanded program on immunization (EPI) branches, health zones and areas, is important to strengthen the health system and implement advanced and mobile vaccination strategies. Integration with other healthcare will make a difference and bring significant benefits to the most vulnerable populations, ”Dr. Sambo.
Families displaced from eastern Dr. Congo because of violent uncertainty.
Continuous MPOX outbreaks
Even when the country is fighting against vaccine prevention diseases, DRC continues to meet a major MPOX outbreak. Between 1 January and March 2, 2025, The country registered 2,415 confirmed cases in which 1,080 of them occurred in the last six weeks alone.
That has declared the MPOX gene blouse for a public health emergency of international concern (Pheic) and warned that the virus is circulating in at least ten provinces.
The outbreak is burned by sustained human-to-human transmission, especially in the capital, Kinshasa, where genomic sequencing indicates that a specific tribe is lasting since July 2024.
Effect of violence
Complicative response efforts are the ongoing violence of the Eastern DRC that disturbed healthcare and made it difficult to trace and contain the virus. In February, the virus was detected for the first time in south-central Lomami province and further expanded the range.
WHO also monitors new travel-related MPOX cases that have emerged outside the country, including in Belgium, France, Germany, the UK and the United States.
Meanwhile, South Africa has reported its first cluster of MPOX cases attached to the same tribe circulating in the DRC.
