Africa Region | Mpox Appeal - Operation Update #4 (MDRS1003)
October 13, 2025
Mpox continues to challenge Africa’s health systems despite recent progress. From January to August 2025, more than 44,000 cases and 180 deaths were reported across 28 countries, with clades I and II both circulating. While July and August saw slight declines due to intensified interventions, renewed surges in Guinea, Togo, Sierra Leone, Kenya, and Malawi highlight persistent vulnerabilities. Guinea’s outbreak, with over 900 cases, shows unclear viral linkages, raising genomic surveillance concerns. The Africa CDC maintains Mpox as a continental health emergency, and WHO has reclassified it as a Grade Three outbreak, emphasizing that sustained funding, vigilance, and regional coordination remain critical.
Mpox remains a pressing public health concern across Africa despite recent signs of progress. Between January and August 2025, the continent recorded 44,066 cases, 180 deaths, and a crude fatality rate of 0.5 percent spanning 28 countries. The disease continues to circulate in both Clade I and Clade II forms, spreading through similar routes and preventable through the same public health measures. While targeted interventions led to a welcome decline in July and August, several countries are now contending with renewed surges.
Guinea’s outbreak is particularly alarming, with more than 900 confirmed cases emerging in a short time without clear genomic linkages to either the clade 2b strain common in Nigeria or the DRC’s strain. This suggests that new or under-monitored transmission pathways may be fueling localized epidemics. Similar spikes have been reported in Togo, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique, straining fragile health systems and threatening to reverse earlier containment gains.
The resurgence underscores the importance of maintaining consistent surveillance and genomic sequencing capacity across the continent. Africa CDC continues to classify Mpox as a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security, while the World Health Organization recently reclassified it as a Grade Three outbreak—a designation reserved for high-impact events requiring sustained international coordination.
This classification reflects both the progress made and the persistent risk of regional spillover. Although the decline in some regions shows that robust interventions work, the uneven nature of outbreak control reveals ongoing disparities in resources, testing capacity, and vaccine access.
Sustaining momentum will require long-term funding commitments, stronger cross-border collaboration, and intensified community engagement. The crisis continues to threaten lives and livelihoods, serving as a reminder that health emergencies in Africa must be addressed through coordinated continental action rather than reactive national responses.