Congolese health officials launched their first mpox vaccination campaign on Saturday, a key step in efforts to contain an outbreak that has spread from its epicenter in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to other African nations this year.

Officials held a ceremony to mark the start of vaccinations at a hospital in the eastern city of Goma, where health workers were first in line to receive the vaccine doses.

The Health Ministry warned on Friday that the campaign's scope would be small due to limited resources. At the moment, 265,000 vaccine doses are available, though more are in the pipeline.

The start of vaccinations begins to address a huge inequity that left African countries with no access to the two shots used to fight a 2022 global mpox outbreak while they were widely available in Europe and the U.S.

"The rollout of the vaccine marks an important step in limiting the spread of the virus and ensuring the safety of families and communities," the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said in a statement.

Mpox can spread through close contact. Usually mild, it is fatal in rare cases. It typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.

In August, the WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern after a new variant was identified.

Congo has reported more than 30,000 suspected and confirmed cases and 990 deaths since the start of 2024 – accounting for 90 percent of the cases reported from Africa so far this year, according to the WHO.