Mpox: Congo Reports Over 1,000 New Cases in a Week 

Congo reported over 1,000 new mpox cases in the week leading up to Tuesday as African health officials requested badly needed immunisations to combat the “growing” threat on the continent. The World Health Organisation declared Africa’s outbreaks a worldwide emergency.

Mpox is in the same viral family as smallpox, but it has milder symptoms like fever, chills, and body pains and spreads mostly through close skin-to-skin contact, including sexual intercourse. People with severe cases may develop lesions on their faces, hands, chests, and genitals.

While mpox has been detected in 12 of Africa’s 54 countries throughout recent outbreaks, the huge central African country of Congo has had the most cases this year. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention stated that Congo had 94% of the 18,910 cases in 2024, or 17,794, with 535 of the 541 deaths.

The statistics are likely to be underestimated, as only around one in every five suspected cases in Congo is tested for mpox. Africa CDC director-general Dr. Jean Kaseya stated that many impacted African countries have low testing and monitoring capacity.

Congo recorded 1,030 of Africa’s 1,405 new cases in the last seven days, according to Africa CDC numbers released late Tuesday. Only 16% of the cases have been confirmed by various tests, but the infections satisfy the agency’s criteria for the condition.

The WHO declared a global health emergency last week due to an increase in the number of mpox cases in Africa and the discovery of a novel type of virus in Congo that may be easier to spread. Some hope that this will inspire donors to share vaccinations and other resources to help stop the outbreaks in Africa before they spread internationally, as Sweden reported a case of the new mpox strain initially seen in eastern Congo.

The WHO has previously said that earlier efforts to raise funds for mpox failed to generate even a single donor dollar.

According to Africa CDC’s Kaseya, his organisation has received a pledge of 215,000 mpox vaccines from the European Union and vaccine manufacturer Bavarian Nordic, which are expected to arrive in the coming days. The US assistance agency stated that it has sent 50,000 additional doses of the same vaccine to Congo. Japan has also provided some doses to the Congo.

However, Africa is likely to require even more. Congo’s health minister stated that his country alone needs 3 million vaccine shots to end the outbreaks, which have spread to at least four other African countries.

Kaseya said mpox was now “growing and spreading” while countries waited for doses. While Congo was clearly the country causing the most concern, he said it was noticeable that cases in nearby Burundi had more than doubled to 572 in a week.

Kaseya also asked for “solidarity” from the international community in dealing with mpox and specifically urged against any COVID-like travel bans being placed on African countries that would isolate them as the disease is not as easily transmissible.

“Don’t punish Africa,” he said. “We need you to provide appropriate support. This vaccine is expensive.”