African countries and partners have pledged more than $800m towards the continent’s mpox response amid surging infection, said the director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) last week.
Jean Kaseya said $314m was pledged to a new mpox fund created at a meeting of African heads of state, of which $129m is from the pandemic fund to support 10 countries affected by mpox, while about $145m was coming from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
“Today we have around $814m,” he said.
News.AZ reports that money from the pandemic fund will support 10 countries that have felt the impact of mpox: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan.
The funding is expected to bolster country and regional capacity in critical areas, including disease surveillance, diagnostics, laboratory networks and health workforces, while addressing the immediate challenges posed by mpox.
The continental preparedness and response plan for Africa has a budget of about $600m.
Kaseya said the US has also committed to provide $500m to support the continental response plan, and 1m vaccine doses. Africa has secured 4.4m vaccine doses against the 10m doses needed to control the disease spread, he added.
A total of 2 910 new cases of mpox, mostly in central and eastern Africa, were recorded last week and 16 new deaths.
More than 32 000 confirmed cases in 2024 have been recorded on the continent, with 840 deaths.
Kaseya said that compared with the same period last year, there has been a more than 194% increase in cases in 15 African nations, and these are still rising. Challenges include contact tracing and low testing capacity: the testing rate on the continent stands at 49.5%, and many cases cannot be confirmed.
Kaseya said the Africa CDC would start delivering available vaccines from the EU to some of the affected nations.
Congo, the most affected country in the region, will begin vaccinations this week.
“Our objective is to stop this outbreak in the next six months and to do this, we need full support from member states and partners,” he said.
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