Nigeria has received about 10,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine from the United States, becoming the first African country to receive a batch amid an outbreak of the disease in several African countries.

Nigeria was the first country to receive doses of the vaccine after it confirmed 40 cases of smallpox this year, but said the real number could be more than 700.

The West African country has not recorded any deaths from the virus. Nor have there been any cases of Clyd 1B, a new variant that emerged in eastern DRC and then spread to neighbouring countries.

The country began stockpiling vaccines well before the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency in early August this year.