African health body says mpox still major health issue as cases rise

KIGALI, Rwanda

Mpox is still a major public health issue in Africa, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Thursday amid surging new cases.

A total of 3,186 new cases were reported in the past week, with 489 confirmed and 53 deaths, Jean Kaseya said at a news conference.

“We don’t see a decrease in terms of death, but we see an increase when we compared with previous weeks,” he said, adding there is a need to accelerate several interventions, including vaccination, to stop the spread.

In 2024, more than 38,300 cases have been recorded in 16 countries on the continent to go along with 979 deaths, according to the latest data from Africa CDC.

Ghana and Zambia are the latest countries to report an outbreak of mpox on the continent.

The World Health Organization declared mpox a global public health emergency in August for the second time in two years, following the spread of a new variant of the viral infection from the Congo to neighboring countries.

Kaseya said a vaccination campaign launched last weekend in Congo, the most affected country in the region, is on track with more than 1,600 people vaccinated, mainly in the east.

Nigeria, which has received an allotment of 10,000 doses of a vaccine from the US, is to start vaccination in the coming days, according to Africa CDC.

Africa expects to receive 10 million doses from partners.

Mpox exhibits flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions.