Mpox outbreak in Africa could be ended in 6 months, says WHO chief

To date, Africa has received just a tiny fraction of mpox vaccines needed to slow the spread of the virus, especially in Congo, which has the most cases—more than 18,000 suspected cases and 629 deaths.

The head of the World Health Organisation believes the ongoing mpox outbreaks in Africa might be stopped in the next six months, and the agency’s first shipment of vaccines should arrive in Congo within days.

To date, Africa has received just a tiny fraction of the vaccines needed to slow the spread of the virus, especially in Congo, which has the most cases—more than 18,000 suspected cases and 629 deaths.

“With the governments’ leadership and close cooperation between partners, we believe we can stop these outbreaks in the next six months,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

He said that while mpox infections have been rising quickly in the last few weeks, there have been relatively few deaths. Tedros also noted there were 258 cases of the newest version of mpox, with patients identified in Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Sweden and Thailand.

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