Mpox death toll hits 1,100 in Africa with cases still rising

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Published Oct 18, 2024  •  2 minute read

A clinician prepares a syringe with the mpox vaccine at the General Hospital of Goma, The Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo by Aubin Mukoni / AFP /Getty Images

Mpox has killed 1,100 people in Africa so far this year as a lack of vaccines, congested refugee camps and prisons fuel the spread of a disease that can also result in blindness and disfigurement.

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“We are not making huge progress,” Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director-General Jean Kaseya said in a briefing Thursday, as he revealed the rising death toll on a continent bearing the brunt of the contagious illness.

Africa needs more vaccines and “concrete action on the ground to stop this outbreak,” he said.

More than 42,000 cases of the disease have been reported this year, with 3,051 in the last week. The vast majority are in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The number of African nations with mpox outbreaks has climbed to 18, from six countries in April.

The virus that causes mpox, has swept through camps housing 2.5 million displaced people in eastern Congo where poor sanitation, scarce food, and other diseases like malaria, measles and cholera are already taking a toll.

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Meanwhile, neighbouring Uganda has outbreaks in two prisons where three confirmed cases have left 1,874 inmates as possible contacts.

Limited hand washing and case isolation make these crowded environments fertile ground for mpox to spread, and raises the need for vaccines and diagnostics, Kaseya said.

Less than half of suspected cases have been tested, even as confirmed numbers have already climbed almost fivefold so far this year compared with all of 2023. Africa CDC and the World Health Organization are trying to process more tests by improving transportation to centralized laboratories and ensuring diagnosis can be done at a sub-regional level by trained locals.

Getting good-quality rapid diagnostic tests will also improve rates because these can be used in peripheral sites. The WHO recently authorized a second diagnostic test for emergency-use listing.

Almost 21,000 people have been vaccinated, with the majority going to contacts of patients, health-care professionals and sex workers. Inoculating children remains a key challenge as vaccines from Japan have yet to arrive, Kaseya said.

Funding that has been pledged by the US and other pandemic partners needs to be released soon to effectively reduce spread, he said.

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