The World Health Organisation, WHO, has launched a vaccination campaign, which is due to begin in Congo.
The move is in response to the Ebola outbreak in the Central African country,
The local head of WHO operations, Patrick Otim said a first batch of 400 vaccine doses arrived by helicopter in the remote affected area earlier in the day.
A new confirmed case around 70 kilometres from the outbreak area in the Bulape region of Kasaï province is fuelling concerns about a wider spread of the often fatal disease.
Aid workers who reached the area have identified hundreds of people who were in contact with those infected and would be the first to be vaccinated.
The first cases were reported in early September.
However, the vaccine must be kept at low temperatures but there is no reliable electricity supply in the region.
“This is now being achieved with special cool boxes,” Otim said.
Another 1,500 vaccine doses are to be flown in once a reliable cooling system is set up on site.
According to the WHO, there are now 25 confirmed cases.
Fourteen people have died, including three children under the age of five. African health authorities have reported several dozen suspected cases.
However, as this number changes hourly following laboratory analyses, the WHO only reports confirmed cases.
Recall that in 2014 and 2015, more than 11,000 people died in an outbreak in West Africa.
NAN