The mpox outbreak in Africa is spiraling out of control, and no, that’s not an exaggeration. According to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the situation is worsening despite the lessons that should have been learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Apparently, weak health systems are still struggling to contain yet another health disaster. You’d think after the devastation of COVID, African nations would be better prepared, but nope, the same old story is playing out, and now the continent is paying the price.
Why It Matters
The World Health Organization (WHO) had to declare this mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. A new variant was identified, and the numbers are skyrocketing. Africa is once again on the global health radar, but for all the wrong reasons.
Brace yourselves for the statistics: mpox cases in Africa have surged by a jaw-dropping 177%, and fatalities have shot up by 38.5% compared to last year, according to Africa CDC data. And People are dying. In just one week, 2,912 new cases were reported, with Morocco joining the list of countries now battling the disease. As if it wasn’t enough for this epidemic to ravage the continent, it’s now spread across all four regions.
Jean Kaseya, the director general of Africa CDC, didn’t mince words in a weekly briefing: “Mpox is not under control in Africa. We still have this increase of cases that is worrying for all of us.” Worrying? That’s an understatement. With 14 deaths in one week alone, it’s hard to grasp how this hasn’t been treated as a full-blown emergency much sooner.
What They Are saying
Let’s not forget, 15 out of the 55 member states of the African Union have reported cases, and it’s spreading fast. In countries like Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), two strains of mpox are circulating. The sad part? Surveillance and testing systems are so weak that we don’t even know what’s happening in other parts of the continent.
Rwanda has finally kicked off its vaccination campaign, while the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the outbreak is hitting hardest, plans to start its vaccination rollout in October. But honestly, is this too little too late? The writing has been on the wall for a while now, and yet here we are, scrambling to contain a disease that’s running rampant.
Bottom Line
So, once again, Africa’s fragile health systems are left exposed, and the people are left to deal with the consequences.
The lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic seem to have been forgotten too quickly, and now the continent finds itself staring down the barrel of another crisis. Will the response improve before more lives are lost, or are we doomed to watch history repeat itself?
