Africa has witnessed a significant surge in mpox cases in 2024, with a 545% increase compared to the previous year, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) says.
As of Thursday, Africa CDC reported over 50,000 suspected cases and over 1,000 deaths across 19 African countries.
The Central African region remains the hardest-hit area, accounting for the majority of cases and fatalities.
The slow disbursement of pledged funds has hindered efforts to contain the outbreak. Despite pledges exceeding $1 billion, only a fraction of the funds have been disbursed.
Failed pledges
Jean Kaseya, the director general of Africa CDC, has decried the situation, saying at a virtual news conference from Ethiopia, “The figures that we have today of disbursement is not matching even 20% of the pledges that we got.”
To address the crisis, the Africa CDC says it has allocated 899,000 vaccine doses to nine countries most affected by the outbreak.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, the hardest-hit country, will receive the largest share of the vaccine doses.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox a global health emergency in August 2022 due to the rapid spread of a new variant.
The virus, which can be transmitted through close physical contact, causes a range of symptoms, including fever, rash, and swollen lymph nodes.
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