Ebola vaccines are being shipped to Congo as part of the UN's efforts to stem the outbreak in the central African country, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman said Monday.
"An initial 4,000 doses are en route to the Democratic Republic of Congo," spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told dpa in Geneva.
The case number since early April has climbed to 39, including 19 deaths, according to the UN health agency.
The cases include two confirmed infections, while 25 have been labelled as probable and 12 as suspect.
The vaccine that is to be used in Congo is the same experimental substance that has been proved to be safe and effective in a trial among 7,500 people in Guinea in 2015.
Guinea, along with Liberia and Sierra Leone, were at the centre of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed 11,000 people.
In the current outbreak, the WHO has said it is worried that the highly infectious and deadly haemorrhagic fever could spread from Congo to neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic.
Highlighting the UN's crisis response, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday visited Bikoro in a remote area of north-western Congo where the infections are occurring.
The World Health Organization has a green light from Democratic Republic of Congo to import and use an experimental Ebola vaccine in the country, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Monday.
"We have agreement, registration, plus import permit, everything formally agreed already," Tedros said. "All is ready now to really use it," he said, adding that the Congolese government deserved praise for its response to the outbreak.
