Mpox activity continues to fluctuate among different countries in Africa, but as a whole the situation continues to escalate, with the region in the first 3 months of the new year nearly reaching 50% of the cases reported for all of 2024, the head of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said today at the agency’s weekly briefing.
Uganda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) accounted for 95% of the confirmed cases last week, but Africa CDC Director Jean Kaseya, MD, MPH, said the full picture in the DRC is hazy, because test coverage is low, at 18.4%, due to ongoing conflict in the eastern part of the country and problems collecting samples and transporting them to labs owing to foreign aid cuts.
The DRC is also grappling with a major measles outbreak. Kyeng Mercy, PhD, epidemic intelligence unit lead at Africa CDC, said about 12,000 measles cases have been reported this year, along with 180 deaths, in 26 provinces, though most are from North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, which are difficult to access because of armed conflict.
First case in Ghana after 11-week break
Kaseya said that, in other outbreak developments, Ghana reported its first mpox case after going 11 weeks with no new cases.
The patient is a 29-year-old man with no travel history or recent contact with wildlife. He works as a skin aesthetician and was involved in treating a patient with "large pimples." Lab results determined that the worker's infection involved the clade 2 virus.
Kaseya added that the new case in Ghana is a reminder of the importance of beefing up surveillance, even in countries that aren't current mpox hot spots.
Officials said they are seeing a mixed picture in different countries, with cases rising in Tanzania, one of the newer hot spots. However, cases in Uganda trended downward last week, as the country prepares to launch the second phase of its mpox vaccine campaign.
Weighing options for tackling financial challenges
In other developments, Kaseya said Africa CDC today released a concept paper on health financing in "a new era," which comes amid a historic 70% drop in official development assistance from 2021 to 2025 alongside deep-rooted vulnerabilities, which include unprecedented outbreaks and rising debt.
The paper focuses on three pillars, which include boosts in domestic health financing and innovative financing tools, such as a levy on airline tickets. The third is blended financing measures, such as manufacturing medical countermeasures in Africa, and improving the data connectivity and supply chain infrastructure.
