GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said Saturday that it has launched an emergency tender for mpox vaccines to help countries hardest hit by the recent outbreak of the disease.

“The emergency tender is designed to secure immediate access to available mpox vaccines as well as to expand production,” UNICEF said in a statement issued along with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Gavi vaccine alliance and Africa CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention).

“Depending on demand, production capacity of manufacturers and funding, agreements for up to 12 million doses through 2025 can be put in place,” it said.

Under the emergency tender, UNICEF plans to set up conditional supply agreements with vaccine manufacturers.

This “will enable UNICEF to purchase and ship vaccines without delay once countries and partners have secured financing, confirmed demand and readiness, and the regulatory requirements for accepting the vaccines are in place”.

The WHO declared an international emergency over mpox on August 14, concerned by the surge in cases of the new Clade 1b strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo that spread to nearby countries.

More than 18,000 suspected cases of mpox have been reported in the DRC so far this year, with 629 deaths.