The first round of vaccine doses totalling 899,000 have been allocated to the nine African countries hardest hit by the newest mpox outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other health organisations announced on Wednesday 6 November.

Mpox was declared a global public health emergency for the second time since 2022 earlier this year when the new clade 1b variant of the virus was found to have spread from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to neighbouring countries.

The DRC will receive the largest quantity of vaccine doses as the most affected country, the WHO said on Wednesday.

The rest of the allocated vaccines will go to the Central African Republic, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.

In September Bavarian Nordic signed an agreement with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for one million doses of its mpox vaccine, Jynneos, for countries in Africa impacted by the disease outbreak. The agreement came after the WHO faced criticism for acting too slowly on vaccine rollouts.

The initial agreement included 500,000 doses of the vaccine previously committed by Gavi, a public-private alliance that co-funds vaccine purchases for low-income countries.

The Danish biotech said it would make all doses available for supply before the end of this year and work with partners to secure the availability of vaccines beyond 2024.

The allocated vaccines are from European countries, the US, Canada and Gavi.