By Kemo Cham
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is set to deploy experts in Sierra Leone to reinforce its response to the escalating Mpox epidemic.
Africa CDC Director General Dr Jean Kaseye said on Thursday that stopping the spread of Mpox in Sierra Leone is a top priority for him to prevent an escalation in the wider sub region.
“Sierra Leone today becomes one of our major priorities and I want to stop this outbreak in Sierra Leone to prevent a huge spread in other Western African countries,” he said during the agency’s weekly press briefing on Mpox.
Sierra Leone continues to record the highest number of cases on the continent, data shared by the continental public health agency says.
A recent assessment of the country’s response to the epidemic exposed the weakness and incapacity of it healthcare system to handle the crisis, and that was blamed for the escalation of cases in just three months after the first case was recorded.
Sierra Leone joined DR Congo, Burundi and Uganda as the top four countries that account for the largest number of Mpox cases on the continent. These countries combined accounted for over 90 percent of cases on the continent last week, and Sierra Leone accounted for half of the number.
Data from the National Public Health Agency (NPHA) of Sierra Leone show that the country has recorded 2,354 cumulative confirmed cases, of which 1,932 are active, as of may 15th.
According to Dr Kaseye, the pending Africa CDC team of experts will comprise 25 people, including epidemiologists and laboratory technicians.
“We are bringing the full package – epidemiologists, to understand the situation in the field. We are bringing lab experts to reinforce the capacity of the country. We are bringing colleagues for community support to train more community health workers. We are bringing colleagues for infection prevention and control for case management. We are sending around 25 people in Sierra Leone, in addition to vaccine. In addition to all other areas of support,” he said.
Sierra Leone was initially allocated 63, 000 doses of the Mpox vaccine, 61,000 of which was deployed in the country in March. As of last week, according to Africa CDC data, 30, 000 doses of the vaccine had been used.
Africa CDC officials say they have asked for an assessment from Sierra Leonean authorities to determine what exact doses the country would need going forward.
Dr Yap Boum, Deputy Manager of the Incident Management Support Team at Africa CDC, explained thatSierra Leone had initially focused on healthcare workers, instead of sex workers, in accordance with the initial plan. He noted that the plan had been adjusted.
“But as mentioned initially, the amount of doses available at the global level – around 400, 000 – is not sufficient. So we need to mobilized much more doses and work towards local manufacturing of vaccines, because we won’t be able forever to rely on donors and partners to support our communities,” Dr Boum said.
Africa CDC is also delaying a planned meeting of the Emergency Consultative Group (ECG), a committee of experts that advises the Director General on scientific matters, to decide on the fate of the current emergency status. The meeting initially scheduled for May 18th will now be held on May 30th, according to the agency.
Dr Kaseye explained that this is to allow for further assessment of the situation in Sierra Leone and the other hotspots to provide more evidence to the experts for appropriate decision.
“We were thinking that cases were declining, then we saw a huge increase, even hotspots,” he said.
“The ECG will help us, based on all information that we have, to understand what is going on.”
