France will donate 100,000 mpox vaccine doses to countries hit by an outbreak of the disease as it readies vaccination centres at home, outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said this week.

"These doses will be distributed through the European Union to regions where the virus is circulating widely," Attal posted on X.

The World Health Organization, which has declared the surge of mpox cases in Africa a global health emergency, and the United States will donate 50,000 mpox vaccine doses to Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN health agency has called for a major increase in vaccine production and said that a vaccination campaign must be a key priority for affected countries.

Last week, the African Union health agency said some 200,000 vaccines would be deployed across Africa thanks to agreements with the EU and Danish drug company Bavarian Nordic, whose vaccine was approved in 2019.

Vaccination sites in France

Some 232 vaccination sites are in place in case of an eventual outbreak in France.

"We aim to be ready to face all scenarios and all risks," Attal wrote.

No mpox cases have yet been reported in France. Sweden's Public Health Agency announced last week it had registered a case of the more dangerous Clade 1b variant of mpox.

While that was the first case in Europe, the patient had been infected during a visit to an affected African country.

The virus has swept across the DRC, killing more than 570 people so far this year.

Outbreaks have been reported in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda since July.

(with AFP)