Mpox vaccines administered in Rwanda, first in Africa

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00:00The vaccination campaign against Mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo is to begin on

00:05October 2nd. The country, at the epicentre of the outbreak, registered more than 24,000 cases.

00:12Meanwhile, vaccination has already begun in neighbouring Rwanda. It started with 1,000

00:18doses it obtained from Nigeria under an agreement between the two countries.

00:22Clément Diroma has the details.

00:24Hundreds of Rwandans have become the first on the African continent to receive

00:33monkeypox vaccine since last Tuesday, although authorities only announced the launch of this

00:38programme later this week. Kigali received 1,000 doses as part of an agreement with Nigeria.

00:43Seven border districts with DR Congo are targeted and vaccinations are expected to

00:48continue in the coming days. Rwanda has so far detected only a handful of cases of the virus,

00:53but the director of Africa CDC stated that the epidemic is not under control on the continent

00:59and neighbouring countries of DR Congo, where the virus has already claimed more than 700 lives,

01:05are concerned. In Uganda, authorities reported a sharp increase in cases, which have doubled

01:10in the last eight days with around 20 confirmed. Half of these cases were detected in densely

01:16populated capital Kampala, but the Ministry of Health there claims to have the situation

01:20under control.

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