A total of 866 people have died from pox in Africa since the start of the year according to a latest report on Thursday from the Africa CDC health agency, which affirmed that “the epidemic is not under control” on the continent. Some 34,297 cases have been recorded since January across the five African regions, said the African Union health agency.
“The epidemic is not under control”
Mpox has been officially detected in 16 African countries, according to the Africa CDC. “The epidemic is not under control,” said Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa CDC at a press conference. Around 2,500 new weekly cases have been recorded in recent weeks, he added, also deploring that the rate of tests to confirm the presence of the disease remains “too low”.
Health authorities in Ghana said the same day that the country had recorded its first confirmed case of Mpox in 2024. The patient, a young boy from the northwest region, about 475 km from the capital Accra, presented the symptoms of the virus, including rash, fever and body aches, Ghana Health Service (GHS) Director General Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said in a statement.
While the child has been released from the hospital and is in stable condition, authorities have identified and are monitoring 25 people who had contact with him. “The suspected Mpox case was isolated in accordance with Mpox management protocols,” Kuma-Aboagye said. Around 230 other suspected cases are under investigation in the West African country, GHS sources told AFP on Thursday.
Mpox, previously called monkeypox, is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans but is also transmitted between humans, causing fever, muscle pain and skin lesions. The resurgence of mpox on the continent and the appearance of a new variant (clade 1b) pushed the WHO to trigger its highest level of global alert in mid-August. Clade 1b has been recorded in the DRC, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, according to the Africa CDC.
The launch of the vaccination campaign in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), epicenter of the epidemic, initially planned for Wednesday, has been delayed indefinitely by the Congolese health authorities. It should start in two days, Mr. Kaseya told journalists. Rwanda started vaccinating on September 17.
