DRC authorities update response to rapidly evolving mpox epidemic – Le Monde

At the Katako referral health center in Maniema province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in November 2023. GUERCHOM NDEBO/ALIMA

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the epicenter of the mpox outbreak, authorities are updating their response. Libreville health authorities confirmed the first case of the new Clade 1b virus strain in Gabon on Thursday, specifying that it concerned a young man returning from a trip to Uganda.

On Monday, the Congolese Ministry of Health held a meeting with the African Union's public health agency, CDC Africa, to adapt its plan to combat mpox, less than a week after the pan-African institution declared its maximum continental alert level. This was followed the next day by the World Health Organization (WHO), which extended the alert internationally (as a public health emergency of international concern, PHEIC) after a case of new-variant mpox was announced in Sweden, then in Thailand.

In the DRC, according to CDC Africa, the latest figures for Friday, August 23 were 17,342 suspected cases and 3,167 laboratory-confirmed cases of mpox by the National Institute of Public Health, as well as 582 deaths.

"That's more than all the cases in the whole of 2023," warned Dr. Louis Albert Massing, Doctors Without Borders' (MSF) medical coordinator for the whole country. The French NGO is a major partner of the Congolese health authorities, who report that all 26 of the country's provinces have reported at least some cases.

Kinshasa can count on receiving its first vaccine donations in the week of September 26, Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba announced on Monday, pointing out that this is now a "continental emergency." While the US has pledged up to 75,000 doses, the European Union 215,000 and France 100,000, Japan is currently the most generous, having announced that it will send 3.5 million doses from its stocks.

This international solidarity is sorely needed, given the scale of the epidemic and the prohibitive cost of the vaccine (100 per dose) for a country like the DRC. Kinshasa had actually planned to roll out a vaccination program in the east of the country as early as October, targeting between 70,000 and 100,000 people. However, in view of the rapidly deteriorating situation, it needs to be able to collect 10 million doses by 2025.

More transmissible than the variant that was rife until September 2023 in the DRC, where mpox has been endemic since the 1970s, Clade 1b is extending its grip on its neighbors: 171 cases have been reported in Burundi, which has not yet suffered any deaths, but is experiencing the week's biggest increase. This strain is spreading in Uganda, Rwanda and the Central African Republic. Further afield in Gabon and Kenya, on Thursday, Nairobi and Kampala announced the reinforcement of health surveillance at their air and land borders.

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DRC authorities update response to rapidly evolving mpox epidemic - Le Monde