Mpox: More than 800 deaths from Mpox virus in Africa since January

According to the African Union Health Agency (CDC), 866 people have died of Mpox infection on the continent since the beginning of the year. The epidemic is in Africa “not under control,” said CDC chief Jean Kaseya. A total of 34,297 cases were registered in the five African regions – including 38 in Ghana, where the disease had not yet appeared.

This means that the number of countries in which this has increased virus has been proven, to 16. So far, 15 countries have been proven to have been affected by the virus, including Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda. The WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern in mid-August.

Last week alone, 2,500 new cases were registered, said Kaseya. He criticized the testing rate as too low.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – the epicenter of the outbreak – vaccinations would begin in two days, Kaseya said. The vaccination campaign should actually have started on Wednesday. Rwanda started vaccinating on September 17th.

The Mpox virus was first detected in laboratory monkeys in Denmark in 1958. For this reason, the disease, which causes fever, muscle pain and smallpox-like pustules on the skin, was known for decades as monkeypox.