The Public Health Agency (PHA) says it has a fifth of the supply it needs to vaccinate those most at risk of monkeypox in Northern Ireland.

But it said it hoped there would be sufficient vaccines by September for the 2,500 people deemed eligible.

The PHA said cases, which have risen to 18 in Northern Ireland, are mainly seen in gay and bisexual men, but anyone could potentially catch the virus.

The virus is not new but only arrived in Northern Ireland in May 2022.

Monkeypox is caused by the monkeypox virus, a member of the same family of viruses as smallpox, although it is much less severe and experts say chances of infection are low.

It occurs mostly in remote parts of central and west African countries, near tropical rainforests. In those regions, there have been more than 1,200 cases of monkeypox since the start of the year.

Two main strains of the virus - west African and central African - are known to exist, and it's the milder one from west Africa which is now circulating in other regions of the world.