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The first 10,000 mpox vaccines have reached Africa, but instead of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), the epicentre of the epidemic, they are going to Nigeria.
The vaccines were a donation from the US government. Nigerian health authorities had already launched an early campaign to secure the vaccines after the outbreak of the virus in 2022.
DR Congo, on the other hand, has given up hope of receiving vaccines this week.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has promised 50,000 vaccine doses, but no delivery date has been announced. Japan followed suit with a pledge to deliver up to three million doses, but it has not yet been delivered.
The European Commission has asked member states to indicate by the end of August whether they intend to donate mpox vaccines to African countries.
Some countries, including the Netherlands, have opted to keep their national stocks.
According to the epidemiologist, it's not worth sending that number of doses to Nigeria, "If we have no vaccines at all, we should concentrate the vaccines in DR Congo first to prevent the spread to other countries."
