Addis Ababa, Oct 24 (EFE).- The public health agency of the African Union reported Thursday 45,327 mpox cases (9,114 confirmed) and 1,014 deaths from the disease since the beginning of 2024 in 18 countries of the continent.
Epidemiologist Ngashi Ngongo, head of the Executive Office of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explained that this is a 400% increase in cases compared to 2023.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of the epidemic, and neighboring Burundi for 96% of the 1,001 new infections confirmed in the region last week.
Gabon, Guinea-Conakry, Rwanda, Cameroon, and South Africa have not confirmed any new cases in the last four weeks, according to CDC Africa.
Ngongo said about 5.6 million vaccine doses have been confirmed for shipment, including 2.5 million produced by Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic and another 3 million from Japan’s KM Biologics.
The DRC, Nigeria, Rwanda, the Central African Republic, South Africa, and Côte d’Ivoire have developed a vaccination plan, the DRC and Rwanda have already begun vaccination, Ngongo said, noting that Nigeria plans to launch its vaccination campaign on Oct. 29.
On Aug. 13, the African CDC declared mpox a public health emergency of continental security; the following day the World Health Organization announced an international health alert for the disease.
The WHO alert refers to the rapid spread and high mortality in Africa of the new variant (clade Ib), the first case of which has been identified outside the continent, in Sweden, in a person who had traveled to an area of Africa where the virus is circulating intensively.
This variant differs from clade II, which caused a violent outbreak in Africa in 2022, as well as hundreds of cases in Europe, North America, and countries in other regions, which led to the declaration of an international public health emergency between 2022 and 2023.
According to the WHO, mpox is an infectious disease that can cause a painful rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, and lack of energy. EFE
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