Mpox vaccination drive delayed in DR Congo

Kinshasa: The mpox vaccination campaign in Democratic Republic of Congo has been pushed back, health authorities told AFP on Tuesday, with the exact s...

Kinshasa: The mpox vaccination campaign in Democratic Republic of Congo has been pushed back, health authorities told AFP on Tuesday, with the exact start date unclear.

Jabs were set to be rolled out on October 2 in the central African country, the epicentre of the latest outbreak.

"We don't plan to start on the 2nd," doctor Nanou Yanga, a member of the health ministry's Expanded Vaccination Programme, told AFP.

Vaccinations will begin in eastern DRC, according to Yanga, despite the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention having voiced concern in September about the spread of the virus in the highly populated capital city of Kinshasa.

"We have observed a rapid increase of cases in Kinshasa -- that is something that worries us very much," doctor Ngashi Ngongo, Africa CDC chief of staff and head of the executive office, said at a mpox briefing on September 26.