1,100 mpox deaths recorded across Africa — CDC

Kenya’s capital, Nairobi The African Union’s health office reported on Thursday that almost 1,100 people have died from mpox across Africa, and it issued a warning that the pandemic was “going out of control” if nothing was done.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) announced that 42,000 cases had been detected across Africa since January, with instances being reported in Zambia and Zimbabwe for the first time.

According to the report, this extends the total number of African nations where mpox has been formally identified this year to 18.

Head of the Africa CDC Jean Kaseya warned during an online media briefing that “mpox is going out of control if we do not act.”

“I’m so sad to say we now have more than 1,000 deaths due to mpox, as you can see this week, week 40, we have 1,100 deaths reported in total.”

The majority of deaths have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicentre of the outbreak, which launched a vaccination drive earlier this month.

But Kaseya said that across the continent there were still “more new cases week after week”.

“Eighteen countries is too much, we cannot continue like that,” he said.

Once more, Kaseya pleaded with international allies to come forward and demanded that they promptly deliver money that had been promised to fight mpox.

“We want now to see concrete action on the ground to stop this outbreak,” he stated.

The virus that is often known as mpox, or monkeypox, is transmitted to humans by infected animals; however, it can also be acquired through close physical contact.

It can be fatal and produces fever, aches in the muscles, and big skin sores that resemble boils.

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