The Democratic Republic of Congo rolls out its mpox vaccine programme with 100,000 doses sent by the EU - but what logistical challenges do the medical teams face on the ground? Also on the programme: the UN says both sides in Sudan's civil conflict have committed atrocities that may constitute war crimes; and why China decided to abandon its foreign adoption programme. (Photo: A mum in the Democratic Republic of Congo applies medication on the skin of her child who is under treatment for mpox. Credit: Reuters)
Hello, and welcome to NewsHour.
Live from the BBC World Service in London, I'm Rebecca Kesby.
Coming up in just a moment, we'll be taking a look at the rollout of vaccines to tackle the empox virus that begins in the Democratic Republic of Congo today.
Also later in the program, how a dramatic drop in the us bat population 20 years ago led to an increase in infant mortality years later.
And also, we'll be we speaking to Eugene Hoots, who's a ukrainian born singer in the us based group Gogol Bordello.
And he tells us how he's been entertaining ukrainian troops when they return from the front line.
It was amazing to see music being like a psychic oasis to people who are in active warfare for the duration of the time they get transported.
That's the thing about music.
It can't change the world, but it can transport you temporarily, elevate, levitate to certain degrees.
More on that story to come, but let's begin the program by heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo, because, as I mentioned, today, the country begins the rollout of its Mpox vaccine program.
The first hundred thousand doses or so donated by the European Union have arrived and are to be distributed in the east of the country, epicenter of this outbreak.
Mpox has claimed the lives of at least 650 people in the DRC so far, but it's highly infectious, and more than 19,000 cases have been recorded in the country.
Children are especially vulnerable to the disease and are less likely to survive the illness.
But for the health authorities, coordinating the vaccine program in an area of the country in the grip of conflict between warring militia won't be easy.
Our correspondent, Simi Jolo Osho in the city of Goma, told me more 99,000.
Dozers were delivered yesterday, but they arrived in the capital city in Kinshasa, which is all the way in the western side of the country.
But the epicent of the outbreak is all the way on this side, on the eastern side of the country.
And the DRC is a vast country.
There are several challenges for authorities to face in getting those vaccines to where they're needed.
This region is experiencing an armed conflict between the army and several armed rebel groups.