Rwanda begins vaccinations against mpox amid a call for more doses for Africa
The African health agency says that Rwanda has started a vaccination campaign against mpox with 1,000 doses it obtained from Nigeria
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Rwanda has started a vaccination campaign against mpox with 1,000 doses of the vaccine it obtained from Nigeria under an agreement between the two countries, the African health agency said Thursday.
The vaccinations started Tuesday targeting seven districts with “high risk populations” who neighbor Congo, Dr. Nicaise Ndembi from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said. Nigeria donated the 1,000 doses to Rwanda from an allotment of 10,000 it had received from the United States.
Congo has been at t he epicenter of an outbreak on the African continent, where 2,912 new mpox cases and 14 new deaths have been recorded in the last one week, bringing the total number of cases to 6,105 with 738 deaths since the beginning of the year.
“This outbreak must be stopped very quickly,” Africa CDC director-general Dr. Jean Kaseya said Thursday.
