Federal Gov’t Commences Mpox Vaccination In FCT

The federal government has commenced the Mpox vaccination in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Rufai Garba, director of disease control and immunisation at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), told our correspondent that vaccination against Mpox will also commence in the states soon.

NPHCDA had said in October that seven states were selected for the vaccination.

It listed the states as Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Benue, and the FCT, adding that an average of 631 persons were expected to be vaccinated with two doses of the Mpox vaccine across the seven states.

Meanwhile, Dr Garba said that vaccination could not commence in the states today because the movement of vaccines requires special conditions.

“We have started in Abuja today. The vaccines we need to move them to other states, and they need special conditions to be moved. So once we put all that in place, we will commence vaccination in other states.

Recall that Nigeria received 10,000 doses of the Mpox vaccine, out of which it  gave 1,000 to Rwanda,

“We don’t have an outbreak of Mpox. However, we plan to prioritise frontline health workers and populations in communities bordering outbreak countries, said NPHCDA executive director Dr. Muyi Aina.