Uganda to roll out fractional dosing of Mpox vaccine

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Uganda will implement fractional dosing of the Mpox vaccine to protect those at the highest risk, including key populations and close contacts of confirmed cases, according to the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

Currently, less than 260,000 doses of the mpox vaccine are available for use in 12 affected African countries. Uganda has been allocated 42,420 doses, which, under the fractional dose approach, could protect around 200,000 people, a five-fold increase offering them the same protection as a full dose.

Following approval by their National Immunisation Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs), Uganda, Liberia, and Sierra Leone will be able to roll out fractional dose vaccination to protect those at the highest risk, including key populations and close contacts of confirmed cases.

According to the Africa CDC’s director general, this is one of the innovations to respond to the Mpox vaccine gap.

“The Mpox vaccine has registered zero resistance. The vaccine is well accepted, the only issue we have is lack of vaccines. Yet, Mpox is still a major public health issue in Africa,” said Africa CDC director general, Dr Jean Kaseya.

The deputy incident manager, Incident Management Support Team on Mpox at Africa CDC Prof Yap Boum II. (Photo by by Agnes Kyotalengerire)

He was speaking during a weekly Africa CDC media briefing on Thursday, August 14, 2025.

The deputy incident commander at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Bernard Lubwama, welcomed the innovation and said it will work for Uganda.

Understanding the fractional dose innovation

The fractional dose approach uses one-fifth of the standard dose given just under the skin, providing the same level of protection while allowing more people to be vaccinated with the available supply, said the deputy incident manager, Incident Management Support Team (IMST) Africa CDC. Prof. Yap Boum II.

Prof. Bou II said fractional dosing is safe and effective, and it is not new. It was successfully used in 2016 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola during a yellow fever outbreak, and in 2022 in the United States during the mpox pandemic.

The burden

One year since the Mpox was declared a Public Health Emergence of Continental Security (PHECS), the continent has recorded 177,565 cumulative suspected Mpox cases, a total of 49,639 confirmed cases, 1,933 deaths from suspected cases, and 242 deaths from confirmed.

Bringing it down to Uganda, the cumulative Mpox confirmed cases have risen to 7731 with 48 confirmed deaths, according to the National Mpox Situation Report of Epi week 31.

The same report reveals that 120 out of 146 (82%) of districts have reported at least one case since the beginning of the outbreak. Additionally, 50 out of 146 (34%) districts have reported new cases in the past 21 days.

Notably, there is a resurgence in previously high-burdened districts, especially Wakiso and Hoima City. Cumaulatively48 deaths have occurred among confirmed cases, half (47.9%) of whom were co-infected with HIV.

Young adults are disproportionately affected, and the most affected being females aged between 24 and 29.