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Africa: Counting Down to End of Ebola Outbreak, But Mpox Cases Still Rising

Africa: Counting Down to End of Ebola Outbreak, But Mpox Cases Still Rising


Monrovia — More than a million doses of vaccine were allocated so far for emergency use against the infectious mpox virus disease, which has killed hundreds of people in the region and afflicted tens of thousands more, the Africa Centers for Disease Control has announced. Speaking at a weekly online briefing, the head of the Incident Management Team in DR Congo, Ngashi Ngongo, said that of the eight countries that received vaccine doses, five have already begun to inoculate people against the disease. About 200,000 doses of vaccine have been administered to date, including in DR Congo, Uganda, and Rwanda.

The African health watchdog declared a public health emergency of “continental proportion” in August 2024, in response to the worsening mpox situation in the region, which was followed by a similar warning from the World Health Organization. Ngongo said of the more than 21,000 suspected cases that have been “notified” in 2025, more than 5000 were confirmed for mpox.

The Africa CDC official said a new variant of mpox has been reported in the DR Congo, which he said has “higher potential for transmissibility,” unlike the previous clade 1a variant. He said although response efforts in the country has been hampered by the fighting between government forces and M23 rebels in the east, it was uplifting that vaccination has begun in the Kinshasa “hot spot” area.  “People are lining up as testimony of higher acceptance in the community,” Ngogo said.

After three months of being free of mpox, South Africa recorded several new cases of the disease, the Africa CDC said. This brings the number of countries currently afflicted in the region to 22, with 14 of them in the “active phase”. Ngongo said it has been “unanimously agreed” to extend the continental response plan, which was due to expire in February.

More than 500 cases of mpox were confirmed continent-wide in the seventh week of reporting in 2025, with 42 deaths, higher than week six.

While Uganda has been “overwhelmed” with mpox cases – leading the country’s Ministry of Health to make the decision of prioritizing only severe cases of mpox at health centers – it has not reported any new case of Ebola, which flared up in January. Ngongo said Uganda has begun a countdown to declaring that outbreak over.



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