By Kemo Cham
Liberia has been placed on the list of countries considered highest risk for the Mpox Virus Disease (MVD), which continues to increase across the continent, the Africa CDC has said.
Liberia and Uganda were the two countries on the continent that recorded increased number of cases in the week leading to the end of October, 2024, data from the continental public health agency showed. One new country – the Indian Ocean Island nation of Mauritius – recorded a case of the virus, bringing the total to 19 countries that have now recorded cases of the viral disease on the continent, as at Thursday October 30, 2024.
As of Thursday, 7 November, Africa had recorded a total of 50, 840 cases of suspected Mpox virus, with 10, 741 confirmed cases and 1, 03 deaths, since January 2024 when the current wave of the out was declared.
The central Africa region remains the epicentre of the outbreak, accounting for 85.7 percent of cases and 99.5 percent of deaths.
“Mpox cases continue to increase with more countries affected and mixed modes of transmission,” Dr Ngashi Ngongo, Chief of Staff and Head of the Executive Officer at Africa CDC, told journalists at the weekly press briefing on Thursday, October 30th.
“There is need to intensify the response with active surveillance, universal testing, risk communication and community engagement, IPC (Infection Prevention Control) in facilities and communities, targeted vaccination and holistic case management,” he added.
The good news for the week is that five member states which had previously recorded cases did not record any case in the last one week to the end of October. They were Cameroon, Gabon, Guinea, Rwanda and South Africa.
Another piece of good news is that vaccination uptake continue to increase among countries undergoing the process, with some recording 100 percent of the target population.
Nonetheless, overall, the virus still poses a significant threat, calling for proactive measures to prevent an escalation, said Dr Ngongo.
“Political and financial support is critical to control the current outbreak and prevent a sexually transmitted pandemic more severe than Covid-19,” he warned.
Liberia and Uganda saw increase in cases in the last one week prior to October 31st, according to the data. Liberia now has a cumulative number of 13 confirmed cases, since the declaration of Mpox as Public Health Emergency of Continental and International Concern by Africa CDC and WHO, respectively, according to data from the National Public Institute of Liberia, as of October 24.
Before now, Africa CDC has focused its attention on six countries – the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Central Africa Republic, South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire, which were recording the largest number of cases. Of these, only two were vaccinating as of October 31st – Rwanda and DRC. Nigeria, the third country already supplied with the vaccines, couldn’t commence as of October 29th due to logistical issues.
The re-categorization was done three weeks earlier, when Liberia and Kenya were moved from category two to category one, due to their increased number of cases.
Dr Ngongo said Liberia is now one of nine countries the MVD vaccines have been made available to for allocation. But as per Africa CDC’s protocol, the country will need to have a vaccination plan in place to have the vaccines shipped, he said.
Ngongo added that the agency is helping with technical support in the preparation for that.
