By Iyemah David
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has raised concerns that the Mpox outbreak in Africa remained uncontrolled, with rising cases reported in several countries.
Dr Jean Kaseya, Director General, Africa CDC, disclosed this during a weekly briefing on the outbreak.
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease caused by the monkey pox virus.
It shares similarities with smallpox but is generally less severe.
Mpox symptoms include fever, rash, and swollen lymph nodes.
The disease spreads from animals to humans and between humans through close contact, respiratory droplets, and contaminated objects.
In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other health bodies renamed monkeypox to “Mpox” to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with the original name.
WHO also declared the recent outbreak a public health emergency of international concern after a new variant was identified.
“We can say today that Mpox is not under control in Africa. We still have an increase in cases, which is worrying for all of us,” Kaseya said.
He said that within one week, 2,912 new cases were documented compared to the previous week, with Morocco reporting its first case, confirming the spread of the disease in all four regions of the continent.
“So far, 15 of the 55 member states of the African Union have reported cases. We still have people dying from Mpox in Africa. In one week, we lost 14 people,” he stated.
He added that in countries such as Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), two strains of the virus are circulating.
However, he said that due to insufficient surveillance and testing systems, it was unclear whether the same applied to other nations.
“Rwanda has initiated a vaccination campaign, while the DRC, the epicenter of the outbreak, plans to begin vaccinations in early October,” he said.
As of the end of week 35 in 2024, a total of 26,544 cases, including 5,732 confirmed cases and 724 deaths, was reported from 15 African Union member states across all five regions of Africa.
The continent’s case fatality rate (CFR) stood at 2.73 per cent.
Africa CDC data revealed a 177 per cent surge in Mpox cases and a 38.5 per cent increase in deaths compared to the same period in 2023.
Vaccine doses had been delivered to the DRC by the European Union, along with 50,000 doses from the United States.
European nations have pledged several hundred thousand more doses, while Japan has promised three million doses.
Outside Africa, Mpox cases had been detected in countries such as Pakistan, the Philippines, Sweden, and Thailand.
On August 14, WHO declared Mpox a global public health emergency due to rising cases of the new Clade 1b strain.
Meanwhile, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, had secured 500,000 doses of Mpox vaccine to supply African countries impacted by the outbreak.
Also, Nigeria recently received a donation of 10,000 doses of the Jynneos Mpox vaccine from the United States government.
