A recent revelation indicates that the African Centre for Disease Control (CDC) will likely declare a public health emergency (PHECS) over the rate of spread of pox on the continent.
The director general of the African Centre for Disease Control, Jean Kaseya, explains that the rate of the causes in the country has risen rapidly in the past years and months, which necessitated decisive action. He explained that the cases have risen from 79 per cent from 2022-2023 and by 160 per cent from 2023-24.
He mentioned that the rate of spread has alarmed the CDC, and a public health emergency will be declared to protect the people of the content. He noted that the people are dying, and action must be taken to protect the citizens.
On the process to take, he explained that on Tuesday, he would call the heads of the African Union (AU) and the African Union Commission to get their thoughts and go ahead to declare a public health emergency in the continent.
Earlier in June, the African Union allowed the African CDC to make decisive decisions regarding public health issues in the state. According to them, allowing the CDC would enable them to coordinate cross-border responses and would “obligate member countries to notify new cases to the continental body.”
According to the director, the recent decision will enable the adequate mobilization of domestic and international resources for the development of vaccines that will help eradicate public health emergencies.
He revealed that they had discussed the rising number of vaccines produced after the health emergency declaration with the officials of the leading German drug maker BioNTech. He noted that some health officials have cautioned that if an urgent step is not taken, the situation could get worse, putting a larger population in the country at a higher risk of contracting the disease.
The director explained that despite not declaring a health emergency yet, he advised residents in the country to brace up and implement efforts to contain the spread of the disease in the content.
According to him, the declarations will facilitate the quick development and production of medical supplies and enhance the sharing of the same in the content. He noted that declarations would also facilitate the sharing of important information critical to contain the spread of the disease, which will further improve the reliance on the public health systems across the African continent.
The recent figures released by the World Health Organization show that Congo, which is the epicentre of the outbreak, has recorded over 13,000 suspected pox cases, including 503 deaths so far since the beginning of 2024. The recent figures now take the total number of cases to 27,000 since 2023, with more than a thousand individuals confined dead from the disease.
Within the week, the American CDC notified health workers to be vigilant about the surge of cases of mpox. They advised medical workers to be more cautious when attending to individuals developing any strange form of symptom. The CDC also advised all individuals with a recent travel history with any of the high-risk countries to seek medical advice as soon as possible.
Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya have joined the list of new countries in Africa to have reported cases of the new variant since the middle of July 2024
