Public health emergency declared in Africa over MPOX outbreak

NairobiThe Director General of the African Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Jean Kaseya, has declared the mpox outbreak a continental public health security emergency.

This was announced at a press conference held on Tuesday afternoon. Since January, Africa has seen an “unprecedented” increase in cases of MPOX, with 15 countries confirming outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has raised its emergency response to the highest level.

Previously known as monkeypox, mpox is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans, but is also transmitted through close physical contact with a person infected with the virus.

“MPOX has already crossed borders, affecting thousands of people on our continent,” Africa CDC President Jean Kaseya told a news conference.

“We have declared mpox a continental public health emergency,” he added.

This announcement, which will facilitate the release of funds for access to vaccines and achieve a continental response, occurs before the meeting of the emergency committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) aimed at evaluating whether it is necessary to declare the highest level of alert at the international level for this disease.

A total of 38,465 cases and 1,456 deaths have been recorded in 16 African countries since January 2022.

There has been a 160 percent increase in cases in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to data released last week by the Africa CDC.

The United States said Tuesday it is in “close coordination” with the DRC, other affected countries and health agencies.

“We are closely monitoring the spread of mpox in central Africa. We are pleased to see international leadership in this area,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

The continent is facing the spread of a new strain, detected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in September 2023 and named “Clade Ib”, which is more deadly and transmissible than the previous ones.

“Clade Ib” causes skin rashes on the body, whereas previous strains were characterized by rashes and lesions located on the mouth, face or genital areas.

Mpox was first discovered in humans in 1970 in present-day DRC (formerly Zaire), with the spread of a clade I subtype (whose new variant is a mutation) and was regularly transmitted through contact with animals.

In 2022, a global epidemic, caused by subtype clade 2, spread to a hundred countries and caused about 140 deaths out of a total of 90,000 cases.