Some 34,297 cases have been recorded since January across the five African regions, said the African Union health agency.
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 announced the same day that the country had recorded its first confirmed case of Mpox in 2024.
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.
