ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA | Xinhua | The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said mpox vaccination could start “in the coming days” as the number of cases surges across Africa.
Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya, while addressing a special online media briefing Tuesday on the multi-country mpox outbreak in Africa, expressed concern over the rapid spread of the disease across the affected African countries.
He said the specialized healthcare agency of the African Union (AU) is working with international partners and AU members to start mpox vaccination soon.
“We will start in a few days if we are sure that everything is in place. By the end of next week, vaccines will start to arrive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other countries,” Kaseya told reporters.
He said the number of mpox cases in the affected countries has now surpassed 18,910, registering more than 1,400 new cases and 24 related deaths during the previous week alone.
Africa CDC data show that between Jan. 1 and Aug. 13, 12 African countries reported 17,505 mpox cases and 541 deaths.
On Aug. 13, the Africa CDC declared the ongoing mpox outbreak in Africa as a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security, saying that the outbreak “has now crossed borders, affecting thousands across our continent.”
Kaseya called for concerted efforts to contain the virus, which has spread rapidly in the most-affected countries.
“An alert is coming from Burundi, the DRC and the Central African Republic, where we see an increase in terms of deaths and cases,” he told reporters Tuesday.
Kaseya said the Africa CDC is working with all AU members to strengthen the vaccine supply chain and the communication component to ensure a smooth introduction of the vaccines across the continent.
“As Africa CDC, we have a clear plan to procure and make available 10 million doses for our Africans. The 10 million doses that we are talking about is not a dream. We have a clear plan that by the end of 2025, we will have the 10 million doses in Africa,” he said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, was discovered in Denmark in 1958 in monkeys kept for research, and the first reported human case of mpox was a nine-month-old boy in the DRC. Mpox can spread from person to person or occasionally from animals to people.
Common symptoms of mpox are rash, fever, sore throat, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy, and swollen lymph nodes.
Following the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and the end of smallpox vaccination worldwide, mpox steadily emerged in Central, East and West Africa, and a global outbreak occurred in 2022-2023, the WHO said. ■