"We are once again sending a strong message that monkeypox continues to be a serious public health emergency in Africa," Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) director John Kaseya said at a news conference on the evolution of the disease.
Of the countries that have registered outbreaks on the continent, 13 are in the "active phase", including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo), Angola's neighbor, which remains the epicenter of the epidemic.
The Central African region is, in fact, responsible for 85 percent of infections and 99.2 percent of deaths, according to the Africa CDC.
Meanwhile, eight countries are in the so-called "controlled phase", including four - South Africa (Mozambique's neighbouring nation), Gabon, Morocco and Zimbabwe - that have not recorded any new cases in the past 90 days.
Kaseya said that in the first three months of 2025, the AU public health agency wants to step up the response in the outbreak's "focus" countries - DR Congo, Uganda and Burundi - with the deployment of 80 epidemiologists and 2,400 additional community health workers.
Additionally, following the slowdown in vaccination against the disease in early December, Kaseya announced a new strategy to accelerate immunization that, instead of prioritizing patient contacts, will focus on mass vaccination of communities in the most affected areas. .
While three countries began the vaccination process last year - DR Congo, Rwanda and Nigeria - six others have already received doses but have not yet received them on their territory, and the rest are awaiting the allocation and shipment of the drugs.
The AU's public health agency declared mpox a continental public health emergency on August 13, and the following day the World Health Organization (WHO) announced an international health alert for the disease.
The WHO alert refers to the rapid spread and high mortality in Africa of the new variant (clade Ib), of which several cases have been identified outside the continent in people who have traveled to areas of Africa where the virus circulates intensely.
In Europe, the most recent confirmed case was in France, at the beginning of the year, in the capital of Brittany, Rennes.
This variant differs from clade II, which caused a violent outbreak in Africa in 2022, as well as hundreds of cases in Europe, North America and countries in other regions, and which has already led to the declaration of an international health emergency between 2022 and 2023.
Mpox is an infectious disease that can cause a painful rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever, headaches, muscle aches, back pain, and lack of energy.