More than 800 people have died throughout Africa as a result of mpox, according to the African Union’s disease control center, which warned that the epidemic “was not under control”.
The AU’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) reported 34,297 cases across the continent since January, with 38 cases in Ghana.
According to the health organization, the number of African nations where mpox has been officially detected this year has already reached 16.
“The epidemic is not under control,” Jean Kaseya, the chief of Africa’s CDC, told a press briefing, adding that 866 people have died since the beginning of this year.
He also warned that the testing rate remained “too low,” noting that approximately 2,500 new cases had been found in the previous week.
Kaseya announced that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the epicenter of the outbreak, will begin vaccinations in two days. Vaccinations had been scheduled to commence on October 2.
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is caused by a virus that is transmitted to people by infected animals but can also be spread from person to person by intimate physical contact.
It causes fever, muscle pains, and big boil-like skin lesions, which can be fatal.