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KINSHASA. — The Democratic Republic of Congo has almost run out of yellow fever vaccine in Kinshasa, in the same week that the government declared an epidemic of the disease in the populated capital and two other provinces.

Some local people have complained they were denied immunisation due to the shortage, despite queueing for a shot.

More supplies have been promised, but health officials in the country say they have to choose between the high cost of flying them in, or a long wait for shipment by sea.

The mosquito-borne haemorrhagic virus is a major concern in Kinshasa, a city of about 12 million people which has poor health services, a humid climate beloved of the insects and much stagnant water where they can breed owing to pour drainage.

Health minister Felix Kabange said on Monday that 67 cases had been confirmed in Kinshasa, Kongo Central and Kwango provinces and that over 1 000 more suspected cases are being monitored. Five people have died from the disease.

The government and international health organisations vaccinated more than 2 million people, about half of them in Kinshasa, between May 26 and June 4.

But there is no more vaccine left, aside from a small number of doses left in reserve in Kongo Central and some being administered by a government agency at Kinshasa’s central hospital, airport and river crossing with neighbouring Congo Republic, health officials said.

The agency is charging $35 for the doses it administers, a hefty sum in a country whose gross national income per person is estimated by the World Bank at $380 a year.

Eugene Kabambi, the World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman in Congo, said that the International Co-ordinating Group on vaccine provision has promised Congo more than a million more doses.

“That requires either a cargo flight, in which case it would come very quickly but cost a lot, or if it’s by boat, it could take a few weeks,” he told Reuters.

The Coordinating Group brings together the WHO and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies plus the medical charity Médecins sans Frontières.

The global stockpile of yellow fever vaccine has already been depleted twice this year to immunize people in Angola, Uganda and Congo.

It stands at 6 million doses, but this may not be enough if there are simultaneous outbreaks in a number of highly-populated areas, experts warn.

Almost 18 million doses have been distributed for emergency vaccination campaigns so far in the three African countries. — Reuters.