Health More than 800 deaths from Mpox virus in Africa since January
According to the African Union's health authority (CDC), 866 people have already died from Mpox infection on the continent since the beginning of the year.
04.10.2024, 02:37
SDA
The epidemic is "not under control" in Africa, CDC chief Jean Kaseya told journalists on Thursday. A total of 34,297 cases have been registered in the five African regions, he added, including 38 in Ghana, where the disease had not previously been seen.
This brought the number of countries in which the virus has been detected to 16. 15 countries have been confirmed 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.
In the past week alone, 2,500 new cases have been registered, explained Kaseya, criticizing that the testing rate is too low. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), vaccinations will begin in two days, Kaseya added. The vaccination campaign should actually have started on Wednesday. Rwanda had started vaccination on September 17.
The Mpox virus was first detected in laboratory monkeys in Denmark in 1958. The disease, which causes fever, muscle pain and smallpox-like pustules on the skin, was known for decades as monkeypox.
