On Friday 24 February, the European Commission announced that the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) had donated 10,000 doses of the Imvanex vaccine used against Mpox (formerly known as “monkeypox”) and developed by the pharmaceutical firm Bavarian Nordic (see EUROPE 12998/24) to Ukraine.
This is the second round of donations, involving 27 recipient countries.
The European Commission, together with the World Health Organization (WHO), aims to prevent Mpox from becoming endemic in Europe (see EUROPE 13020/20).
The Commission and Ukraine signed an agreement in July 2022 associating Ukraine with the European health programme, EU4Health (see EUROPE 12994/15). Association with EU4Health allows Ukrainians to take full advantage of the funding opportunities available under this European programme.
Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko said that Ukraine was joining the global strategy to prevent the spread of Mpox.
The Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, declared that “the Commission’s support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people remains unwavering”. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)