Mpox Is Officially a Health Emergency in Africa

August 13, 2024 3:27 PM EDT

A fast-spreading mpox outbreak in Africa was declared a continent-wide public health emergency, as the region’s main health advisory body invoked this power for the first time as it moved to marshal resources.

The declaration will prompt countries in the region to share timely information on mpox’s spread with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, helping it to better tap financial aid, Jean Kaseya, director general of the Addis Ababa-based agency, said on Tuesday.

“Today I commit to you that African citizens will lead this fight with every resource at our disposal,” he told a virtual press briefing. “We’ll work with government, international partners and local communities to ensure that every African, from the bustling cities to the remote area, is protected.”

A mutated mpox strain has spread to at least six African countries, infecting about 15,000 people and killing more than 500 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this year alone. The variant was first reported in the DRC less than 12 months ago.

While mpox vaccines are available, few have made their way to Africa—the only continent where the disease is endemic. At about $100 per dose, the vaccines are currently very expensive, Kaseya has previously said. Africa will need about $4 billion to fight mpox, money that “we are confident that we can leverage,” he said.

About 200,000 doses will begin to be distributed in countries that are the most severely affected in the next two weeks, and work is under way to secure more than 10 million shots that it is expected the continent will ultimately need, according to Kaseya.

The move by the Africa CDC came a day before a panel of advisers convened by the World Health Organization is due to meet to help determine whether the deadly outbreak constitutes an international emergency.

The WHO last declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern in May 2022 when cases of a milder strain erupted globally, “but Africa didn’t get appropriate support,” Kaseya said. When the agency lowered its alert level a year later, “cases in Africa continued to increase and today we are facing the consequence of no assistance,” he said.

Africa CDC was only given the mandate to call regional public health emergencies in 2023, even as WHO warned it could also trigger travel and trade restrictions that would isolate the continent. Still, there is no reason to close borders or stop trading, Kaseya said.

“What we were doing before didn’t work,” he said. “We call upon our international partners to take this mpox as an opportunity to act differently and to work closely with African CDC and African countries to provide appropriate support to affected people.”