The Gavi vaccine alliance has reached an agreement with Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic to obtain 500,000 doses of mpox vaccine for African countries dealing with an outbreak of the virus.

Between January and the end of August, the DR Congo had recorded nearly 22,000 cases and more than 700 deaths linked to the virus.

By late August, the new strain of the disease had also been detected in neighbouring Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, plus Kenya, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

A single case has been detected in both Sweden and Thailand.