The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NHPCDA) Director General, Dr. Muyi Aina, told reporters during the official handover on Tuesday that the vaccine distribution would start right away and that frontline workers and the states with the highest case counts would receive priority.
He expressed gratitude to the US government for its cooperation and promised to use the vaccines wisely, claiming that doing so would prevent the disease from spreading throughout Nigeria and help save lives.
The information was revealed by Jide Idris, the director general of the NCDC, during a press briefing earlier this month regarding the designation of Mpox as a public health emergency of worldwide importance.
According to him, the NCDC is stepping up surveillance throughout Nigeria to quickly identify and address any new cases.
Idris claims that the NCDC has put all port health services on high alert at all five international airports, ten seaports, and fifty-one land/foot crossing borders.
He continued by saying that a few other states, including the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, Lagos, Enugu, Kano, Rivers, Cross-River, Akwa-Ibom, Adamawa, and Taraba, have also been placed on high alert.
WHO recently declared the Mpox surge in Africa a global public health emergency, worried by the rise in cases in DRC and the spread to nearby countries.
The WHO called a meeting of experts to study the outbreak and make a recommendation to Dr Ghebreyesus.
