As Nigeria plans vaccination against monkeypox (mpox) in high-burden states, the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS) has concluded plans to downscale training on response coordination regarding the virus across the 774 local councils to prevent humanitarian crisis due to its spread.

This was as the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) reported that the disease remains a significant public health issue.

National President, NRCS, Oluyemisi Adeaga, made this known at the end of a three-day Train-the-Trainer capacity building workshop for States’ Subnational Teams, organised in partnership with the Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention (NCDC), at the weekend, in Abuja.

According to Adeaga, the NRCS is spread across all the local councils in Nigeria with a membership of 800,000 which it intends to leverage to scale down the training for awareness creation on the infectious viral disease.

He added, “When you compare it to what we have as the national population of 220 million, practically we might not be there, but then we ensure that we have a presence in all the local councils and we can easily mobilise from surrounding local councils if there are challenges.

“In all areas of health challenges and humanitarian challenges, the Red Cross is always ready to mitigate by collaborating with essential organisations and institutions to mitigate disasters.”

We are always involved in ensuring the treatment of such citizens by providing equipment and personnel where we can.”

When it comes to promotion and awareness creation, he noted, the organisation has skill units, inter-agents in higher institutions and partnerships with churches and mosques in addition to its branches to coordinate response to all humanitarian crises effectively.

Senior Epidemic Preparedness and Response Officer, NCDC, Dr OdianosenEhiakhamen, revealed that Nigeria would, in a few days, roll out vaccination against the virus in states considered ‘high burden’ to curb further spread.

Ehiakhamen said, “We actually have an EOC (Emergency Operation Centre), for mpox; it’s a multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary coordination for mpox response, and the Red Cross had thought it wise to support training and capacity building of state officials to be able to respond adequately.

“We have over 90 confirmed cases so far in the states, about 25 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and we think it is important to improve the capacity of health workers to properly respond.”

According to him, the incident response plan for Nigeria, used to coordinate response for mpox, has the Red Cross, WHO, NCDC, Breakthrough Action and many other partners supporting the response through the Federal Ministries of Health, Agriculture and others.

AFRICA CDC said 489 new cases of mpox and 53 deaths were confirmed in the past week.

The Director-General, Dr Jean Kaseya, disclosed this during a weekly briefing on disease outbreaks in the continent.

Kaseya said, “A total of 3,186 new cases were reported in the past week, with 489 confirmed and 53 deaths.

“While we do not see a reduction in deaths, there is an increase in cases compared to previous weeks.”

He noted the need to accelerate interventions, including vaccination, to curb the spread.

The DG highlighted a vaccination campaign launched in the DRC, the hardest-hit country, where more than 1,600 people have been vaccinated, primarily in the eastern region.

He said Nigeria, which recently received 10,000 doses of the pox vaccine from the United States, was set to begin vaccination in the coming days.

According to him, Africa expects to receive 10 million doses from international partners.