DRCongo, which borders Angola, has recorded 16,700 cases, "with just over 570 people having died" since the beginning of the year, Samuel-Roger Kamba said at a press conference.
"We have two main countries that have promised us vaccines. The first is Japan and the second country is the United States of America," he continued.
The United States promised 50,000 doses, while "Japan signed this morning, with the authorities, 3.5 million doses, just for children", explained an official from the response unit cited by the France-Presse news agency (AFP ).
With a population of around 100 million inhabitants, DRCongo "plans to vaccinate four million people, including 3.5 million children", this source added.
"I hope that next week the vaccines will have arrived (...). Our strategic vaccination response plan is already ready, we are just waiting for them to arrive," said the minister.
The disease "is affecting more and more young people, particularly many children under the age of 15", he explained.
The current epidemic is characterized by a more contagious and dangerous virus, with an estimated mortality rate of 3.6 percent.
The resurgence of Mpox in DRCongo, which is also affecting Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to activate its highest international alert level on Wednesday.
DRCongo is the focus and epicenter of the current epidemic, and the spread of a more dangerous strain of the virus is causing increasing concern in Africa and beyond. Outside Africa, cases of smallpox have been diagnosed in Sweden, Pakistan and the Philippines.
Previously known as monkeypox, the virus was discovered in 1958 in Denmark in monkeys bred for research purposes. It was first discovered in humans in DR Congo (formerly Zaire) in 1970.
Smallpox is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans, but is also transmitted through close physical contact. The disease causes fever, muscle pain and skin lesions.
"Do not eat the meat of dead animals, do not touch sick animals, because this is also a way of getting infected", advised the Congolese minister.
