Mpox response paying off in Africa

While Mpox remains a global threat, the World Health Organization said there are positive signs the response is paying off in Africa, the most affected region by the outbreak.

Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa, said the Mpox situation in Africa is nuanced, noting that many countries in the continent have strengthened disease surveillance, case detection, infection prevention, and the provision of care and support for affected individuals.

"All these efforts have contributed to curbing the spread of the virus," she said.

Moeti said since October 2024, the Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guinea, and South Africa have not reported active Mpox outbreaks for at least six consecutive weeks and have thus entered the "control phase". The control phase kicks in when no new cases have been reported in the last 42 days.

As of November 25, she added that Ghana, Zambia and Zimbabwe had also entered the control phase.

While 16 of the 19 Mpox-affected countries in the region have achieved testing rates above 80 percent, the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to dominate case counts, accounting for close to 80 percent of all lab-confirmed cases in the continent since the start of the year.

Moeti said DR Congo faces significant challenges, including limited diagnostic capacity and logistical constraints.

"Only 37 percent of collected samples were tested in the three weeks spanning late October to early November 2024, leaving some provinces underrepresented in surveillance data and impacting the response," she said.

"We must continue our efforts in all key areas of outbreak response and strengthen our efforts where needed."

More than 2,000 health workers have been trained in the key aspects of outbreak response across the continent; diagnostic capacity has been vastly expanded with the delivery of 42, 000 polymerase chain reaction tests in October alone.

Additionally, contact tracing and treatment have been ramped up; and large-scale risk communication and community engagement activities are being actively supported to inform populations on how to stay safe.

This has been achieved through the partnership between Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, WHO and other partners.

Moeti said Mpox vaccination campaigns are being rolled out in the DR Congo, Nigeria and Rwanda and vaccination plans are underway in other countries.

As of November 27, 12 countries still had active transmission of the virus. Eight of them — the DR Congo, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Uganda and Kenya — have outbreaks of high concern, Moeti said.