Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Saturday launched the country’s first vaccination campaign against the monkeypox virus, a major step in efforts to contain the virus that has spread to 13 other African countries this year.
Officials held a ceremony marking the start of vaccinations at a hospital in the eastern city of Goma, where health workers began administering the first doses.
The Ministry of Health had said yesterday, Friday, that the scope of the campaign would be limited due to the lack of resources. There are currently 265,000 doses available.
The campaign begins to address a huge disparity that has seen African countries denied the two doses used to fight a global outbreak in 2022 at a time when immunizations are widely available in Europe and the United States.
Monkeypox is spread through close contact. It is usually moderate in severity, but fatal in some rare cases. The virus often causes flu-like symptoms and ulcers in the body.
The World Health Organization declared the disease a health emergency of global concern last August, after the discovery of a new strain of it.
#Democratic #Republic #Congo #launches #vaccination #campaign #monkeypox