Africa CDC says mpox ‘not under control’ on continent

KIGALI, Rwanda

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) warned Thursday about a worrying upward trend of mpox cases across the continent.

“We can say now mpox is not under control in Africa,” Jean Kaseya, director general of Africa CDC, said at an online news conference.

Compared to the same period last year, Kaseya said there has been a 177% and 38.5% increase in the number of mpox cases and deaths, respectively, across 15 African nations.

In the last week, 2,912 new cases were recorded and 14 deaths, he said, underlining the need to reinforce surveillance measures to contain the spread of the disease.

Africa has recorded more than 29,000 cases and 738 deaths this year, according to the latest data from Africa CDC.

Kaseya highlighted the challenge of insufficient testing and laboratory capacities.

He expressed hope that Africa will receive 10 million doses of a vaccine from partners to stop the spread.

“Let us talk of vaccination. We have a success story, we started (vaccination) in Rwanda, with 500 people vaccinated,” said Kaseya.

Rwanda received 1,000 doses of the vaccine from Nigeria under a bilateral agreement from an allotment of 10,000 it had received from the US, according to Africa CDC.

The vaccination was launched Tuesday, targeting seven districts that neighbor Congo with populations at high risk of getting mpox.

Congo, the most affected country in the region, will begin vaccination in the first week of October.

It has so far received 200,000 mpox vaccines from donors including the European Commission's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority.

That is against 3 million doses it needs to end the outbreak, according to authorities.

Morocco was the latest country to report an outbreak of mpox on Sept.12.