THE Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will receive the first vaccine doses to address its mpox outbreak next week from the United States, the country’s health minister has said.

Monday’s announcement came days after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared mpox outbreaks in Africa a global emergency, but there was no word on the quantity of the vaccine that would be made available.

Mpox cases have been confirmed among children and adults in more than a dozen African countries and a new form of the virus is spreading. 

Few vaccine doses are available on the continent.

The DRC has the vast majority of the mpox cases and currently needs three million doses. 

Worldwide, the WHO has reported over 17,000 mpox cases and over 500 deaths this year. More than 96 per cent of all cases and deaths have been in the DRC, a vast country with poor infrastructure whose health system has long struggled to contain disease outbreaks.

Children under 15 account for more than 70 per cent of the cases and 85 per cent of deaths in the DRC.

Last week, Sweden reported its first case of the new version. But officials there said that the risk to the general public was considered to be “very low.”

Mpox was recently identified for the first time in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, the WHO has said.