Democratic Republic of Congo should start to receive three million doses of mpox vaccine from Japan next week that can be used on children, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Thursday.

Africa saw a notable jump in mpox cases last week, with a continuing rise in novel clade 1b detections and shifts in transmission status in affected countries, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said today at a weekly briefing.

Mpox vaccines that young children can use will arrive from Japan next week, a crucial step in reducing the spread of the disease that has killed about 1,200 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo this year.

The Japanese-made vaccine should arrive in the country as early as next week, as the number of cases continues to surge.