The National Primary Health Care Development Agency has announced a tentative start date of October 8, 2024, for the nationwide rollout of Monkeypox vaccinations.
The Head of the Public Relations Unit at the NPHCDA, Remi Adeleke disclosed this exclusively to our correspondent on Friday. According to Adeleke, vaccines will be delivered between October 3 and 6, 2024.
This timeline aligns with the three to six weeks required by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control to complete regulatory procedures such as sampling, traceability, and laboratory analysis following the vaccine’s receipt on August 27.
“The vaccine deployment, according to the current chronogram, will occur from October 3 to 6, 2024. The tentative implementation date is October 8, 2024,” Adeleke said.
Adeleke noted that due to the limited availability of the Jynneos mpox vaccine, only 9,980 doses will be distributed. “These doses will be divided equally, with 1,996 doses allocated to each of the five selected states,” he explained.
The selection of these states is based on the current trends of mpox cases in collaboration with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
The vaccination campaign will target a total population of 4,750 individuals across the five states. “Each person will receive two doses of the vaccine, spaced 28 days apart,” Adeleke clarified.
The targeted groups for vaccination include close contacts of mpox cases, healthcare workers, and individuals with weakened immune systems.
Regarding the deployment strategy, Adeleke stated, “We plan to identify two vaccination sites per state, utilising both fixed posts and special teams.
Fixed posts will be established at infectious disease referral centres, and special teams will be deployed to communities as needed to vaccinate close contacts or high-risk groups.”
He further mentioned that only individuals aged 18 and above will be eligible to receive the vaccine based on the current strategy.
The possibility of receiving additional vaccine doses from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is also being explored to augment the available stock from the planned donation.
Earlier this week, Nigeria received a donation of 10,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine from the United States.
The Jynneos vaccine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of both smallpox and mpox in adults aged 18 and older who are at risk of mpox infection.
Mpox, a rare viral zoonotic disease, is primarily found in remote regions of Central and West Africa.
The disease is caused by the mpox virus, which belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus in the Poxviridae family.
On August 13, 2024, the Africa CDC declared mpox a public health emergency of continental concern, highlighting its mandate to address significant public health threats.
According to data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Nigeria has recorded 48 confirmed cases of mpox out of 868 suspected cases across 35 local government areas in 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
