Africa continues to grapple with Mpox and cholera outbreaks

Africa is currently grappling with Mpox and cholera outbreaks, posing serious public health challenges across the continent.

Speaking at a weekly media briefing on Thursday, Ngashi Ngongo, the principal adviser to the director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Mpox continues to spread in Africa, with Togo and Ethiopia being the countries recently affected.

Ngongo said since January, the continent has recorded 94 percent of all the cases confirmed in 2024, an indication that by the end of the year, the burden would be much higher, most likely more than double the 2024 burden.

He said Sierra Leone continues to show exponential growth over the past three weeks, reporting 74 percent of the reported cases across the continent.

"The highest burdened countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda are now showing the stabilization of the epidemic, while Burundi, Rwanda and Nigeria are showing a decline," he said.

Ngongo said the Africa CDC is appealing for more Mpox vaccine donations to meet the demand, especially in Sierra Leone. He said 6.4 million doses are needed between March and August to cover the affected countries.

Ngongo said 61,424 suspected and 16,916 confirmed cases of Mpox and 448 deaths have been reported since January across 19 countries.

In addition to Mpox, he said the rapid spread of cholera is causing great concern, with over 127,000 suspected cases and 2,597 deaths having been reported across 20 countries since January.

"The cases that are reported in 2025 exceed the cases that were reported in 2024 and 2023. Angola, DR Congo, Sudan and South Sudan account for 83 percent of all the cases and 92 percent of all deaths," Ngongo said.

He attributed the increasing cases of cholera to insecurity, poor water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure, flooding due to heavy rains, and poor health-seeking behavior.

Ngongo said the Africa CDC is planning to hold a high-level meeting with ministers of health on Monday and with the heads of state of the affected countries on Wednesday to discuss the cholera outbreak.