More than a thousand new mpox cases hit Congo in a week

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has reported more than a thousand new mpox cases in the last week as African health authorities plead for vaccines to help fight its "growing" threat on the continent.

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreaks in Africa a global emergency.

Mpox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox but causes milder symptoms such as fever, chills and body aches, and mostly spreads through close skin-to-skin contact, including sexual intercourse.

People with more serious cases can develop lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.

While mpox has been reported in 12 of Africa's 54 countries during these outbreaks, the vast central African nation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has recorded by far the most cases this year.

Out of a total of 18,910 cases in 2024, 94 per cent - or 17,794 - were in the DRC, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said, with 535 of the 541 deaths reported.

The figures are likely to be an underestimate, as only about one in five suspected cases in the DRC are being tested for mpox.

Africa CDC director-general Dr Jean Kaseya said many affected African countries had limited testing and surveillance capabilities.

Over the last seven days, the DRC recorded 1,030 of the 1,405 new cases in Africa, according to statistics provided late on Tuesday by the Africa CDC.

Only 16 per cent of the cases have been confirmed by virus tests, but the infections meet the agency's definition of the disease.

The rising mpox case count in Africa and a new form of the virus identified in the DRC that might be more easily transmitted led the WHO to declare it a global health emergency last week.

Some hope this will encourage donors to share vaccines and other help to curtail the outbreaks in Africa before cases spread internationally as Sweden recorded a case of the new mpox variant first seen in the DRC.

The WHO has previously said its past efforts to raise donations for mpox failed to elicit even a single donor dollar.

Dr Kaseya said that his organisation had received a pledge of 215,000 mpox vaccines from the European Union and the vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic, which were due to arrive in the next few days.

The United States' aid agency said it had donated 50,000 other doses of the same vaccine to the DRC.

Japan has also donated some doses to the DRC.

But Africa is likely to need much more.

The DRC's health minister said his country alone needs three million vaccine doses to end the outbreaks there, which have spilled into at least four nearby African countries.

A 2022 global mpox outbreak in more than 70 countries was shut down in the space of months with vaccines and treatments made available in rich nations, but hardly any doses reached Africa.

It had been spreading largely unnoticed for years in Nigeria and elsewhere before it sparked international concern.

Since then, the virus has continued to steadily harm people in the DRC, with few effective containment efforts.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa criticised the global response to the 2022 outbreak, calling it unfair as treatments and vaccines were made available to rich Western nations while Africa was given little support.

In a statement, he urged the international community to guarantee "equitable access" to mpox diagnostics and vaccines this time.

Mr Ramaphosa's comments evoked memories of Africa's anger at largely being shut out of vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Then, Africa received doses much later than richer countries and had to pay more in some cases.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommended last week that travellers to mpox-affected areas see if they might be eligible to get vaccinated, in a move that could increase pressure to secure mpox shots.