Nairobi, Kenya

Thursday, August 14, 2024

The African Union’s health agency on Tuesday declared a “public health emergency”, its highest alert level, in the face of the continent’s growing mpox epidemic, issuing a “clear call to action” to halt its spread.

A total of 38,465 cases of the disease, formerly known as monkeypox, have been reported in 16 African countries since January 2022, with 1,456 deaths, including a 160% increase in cases in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to data published last week by health agency Africa CDC.

“𝐌𝐩𝐨𝐱 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭 (…) 𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞, 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐱 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲”,Africa CDC president Jean Kaseya told a press conference.

“This declaration is not a mere formality, it’s a clear call to action. It’s a recognition that we can no longer afford to be reactive. We must be proactive and aggressive in our efforts to contain and eliminate this scourge,” he added.

This announcement, which in particular will enable funds to be released for access to vaccines and a continental response, comes on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency committee to assess whether to declare the highest level of international health alert in the face of this disease.

– New strain –

For Boghuma Titanji, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Emory University in the USA, the Africa CDC announcement is “a crucial step” in improving coordination within African countries and encouraging them to release funds to combat the epidemic.

“Over-reliance on external aid has highlighted a major flaw in current response efforts,” the Cameroon-born expert noted in a statement.

Africa is facing the spread of a new strain of the virus, detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in September 2023 and dubbed “Clade Ib”, which is deadlier and more transmissible than previous strains.

Cases have been reported in various parts of the continent (Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, DRC, Rwanda, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa…).

On Tuesday, the United States said it was “in close coordination” with the DRC, other affected countries and health organizations.

“We are closely monitoring the spread of mpox in Central Africa. We’re delighted to see international leadership in this area,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

According to the Africa CDC, the virus has a case-fatality rate of over 3%, and children under 15 are the most affected, accounting for at least 60% of cases.

Mpox is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans but is also transmitted by close physical contact with a person infected with the virus.

Clade Ib” causes rashes all over the body, whereas previous strains were characterized by localized rashes and lesions on the mouth, face or genitals.

Mpox was first discovered in humans in 1970 in what the DRC (ex-Zaire) is now, with the spread of the Clade I subtype (of which the new variant is a mutation), since then mainly confined to countries in West and Central Africa, with sufferers generally contaminated by infected animals.

In 2022, a worldwide epidemic of the clade 2 subtype spread to around a hundred countries where the disease was not endemic, mainly affecting homosexual and bisexual men.

The WHO declared a maximum alert in July 2022 in response to this worldwide outbreak, then lifted it less than a year later, in May 2023. The epidemic claimed some 140 lives out of an estimated 90,000 cases.

According to Mr. Titanji, this WHO alert had not, however, “led to any significant improvement in access to diagnostics, treatment or vaccines for African countries”.

Humaniterre with AFP