More than a month after the program was supposed to begin, Nigeria began mpox vaccinations on Monday, giving shots to medical professionals and those with weakened immune systems at hospitals in the capital, Abuja.
After the World Health Organisation deemed mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, the United States sent its first batch of 10,000 doses of the mpox vaccine to Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, in August.
According to Hafsat Abdullazeez of the Institute of Human Virology in Abuja, “it is not a mass vaccination but target-ringed vaccination for health care workers and immuno-compromised persons, that is, people living with HIV,” he told Reuters.
The initial 10-day vaccination program will target Abuja and seven states, including oil-producing Akwa Ibom, Baylesa, and Rivers, where multiple cases have been reported, according to Hardley Ikwe of the U.S. Centre for Disease Control.The WHO announced this month that an initial 899,000 vaccine doses have been distributed for nine African nations most affected by the mpox outbreak.
