Africa’s top public health body declared a public emergency on Tuesday over an outbreak of mpox that has spread in multiple countries, according to its director-general.
The head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya, told a virtual press briefing: “We declare today this public health emergency of continental security to mobilize our institutions, our collective will, and our resources to act swiftly and decisively.”
Kaseya said in the briefing that the continent needs more than 10 million doses of the vaccine, but only about 200,000 are available. He promised that Africa CDC would work to quickly increase the supply to the continent for mpox, which is also known as monkeypox.
“We have a clear plan to secure more than 10 million doses in Africa, starting with 3 million doses in 2024,” he added, without saying where the vaccines would be sourced.
The health body said that more than 15,000 mpox cases and 461 deaths were reported on the continent this year so far, representing a 160 percent increase from the same period last year. A total of 18 countries have reported cases.
Mpox has been endemic in parts of Africa for decades after it was first detected in humans in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1970.
“Today I commit to you that African citizens will lead this fight with every resource at our disposal,” he told a virtual press briefing. “We’ll work with government, international partners and local communities to ensure that every African, from the bustling cities to the remote area, is protected.”
Officials have warned that a subtype of the mpox virus called Clade I from DRC to some neighboring countries appears to cause more severe disease than the variant that triggered a worldwide outbreak in 2022 and 2023.
The CDC said no cases of mpox have been reported outside central and eastern Africa at this time, including inside the United States. The 2022 and 2023 outbreak had spread to both the United States and Europe.
But the agency warned that “because there is a risk of additional spread, CDC recommends clinicians and jurisdictions in the United States maintain a heightened index of suspicion for mpox in patients who have recently been in DRC or to any country sharing a border with DRC ... with signs and symptoms consistent with mpox.”
Signs and symptoms of an infection can include a rash that may be located on the hands, feet, chest, face, mouth, or near the genitals as well as chills, fever, fatigue, respiratory symptoms, headache, other aches, cough, sore throat, and nasal congestion, the agency said.
Earlier this week, the director-general of the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) said he would convene an emergency meeting on Wednesday to determine whether to make a declaration on whether mpox should be considered a public health emergency of international concern, the body’s highest warning level.
A public health emergency of international concern is the WHO’s highest alarm and allows the U.N. agency to use emergency responses under its international health regulations. Since 2005, there have been seven such declarations, including for COVID-19 in 2020, the zika virus epidemic in 2015, and previous mpox outbreaks in 2022 and 2023.
