Mpox activity in Africa continues at a brisk pace, with concerns about rising cases in newly affected countries such as Sierra Leone and the outbreak turning deadly in Ethiopia, a top official from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said yesterday at the group’s weekly briefing.
Ngashi Ngongo, MD, PhD, MPH, who leads Africa CDC’s mpox incident management team, said that, as of May, the number of lab-confirmed cases (17,845) has nearly reached the total reported for all of 2024.
Weighing continued emergency declarations
Different countries are at different stages of the outbreak, a complex situation complicated by the involvement of different clades and transmission patterns. Ngongo said the outbreak in Sierra Leone is still very concerning and is driving illnesses, with the country making up 53% of cases in the most recent reporting week.
High population density and tourism are major contributors to virus spread, and test positivity is as high as 100% in seven of the country’s districts, a sign that surveillance is still in a passive mode, Ngongo said.
Though 94% of Africa’s cases last week were in four of the hardest-hit countries, he said upward trends continue in some of the newly affected countries, such as Togo and Ethiopia.
Africa CDC’s mpox emergency committee met last week to assess if the situation still warrants a public health emergency of continental concern, and the World Health Organization mpox emergency committee met yesterday for the fourth time to assess the African developments.
In vaccine developments, the Democratic Republic of the Congo last week received 100,000 Jynneos doses from France and 1.5 million doses of the LC16 vaccine from Japan. Also, Sierra Leone is slated to receive 20,000 doses from the United Arab Emirates today.
Ethiopia reports first mpox death
Ethiopia confirmed its first mpox cases in late May, with 3 infections reported, and last week the total rose sharply, to 40 cases, 17 of them confirmed. New cases reflect northward spread beyond the initial illnesses, which were detected on the border with Kenya.
Ngongo said the patient who died is an infant, and though the clade hasn’t been confirmed yet, it’s possible that it involves 1b, which has been circulating in neighboring Kenya.
