Nigeria plans to begin administering Mpox vaccine on October 16 after it received a first batch of 10,000 jabs, a spokesperson for the country’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency said.
The most populous African country has so far reported 40 Mpox cases as it received the first shipment of vaccines from the US Development Agency.
“Due to limited available doses (9,980) of the Jynneos MPox vaccine, the quantities will be split evenly (1,996 doses) across the five states for implementation,” the official told The Punch newspaper.
Meanwhile, other African countries, notably the virus hotspot DRC, continue to struggle to access vaccines.
About 4,000 more mpox cases were reported in Africa last week, mostly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
The outbreak is surging, with 22,863 cases reported since the first of the year. So far the virus has killed 622 people in Africa, according to CDC.
One more country—Gabon—recently reported its first case, lifting the number of affected countries to 13.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR warned that the expanding mpox outbreak could be devastating for refugees and displaced communities in the DRC and other African countries.