Mpox cases in Africa have increased by 500% compared to last year, Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Ngashi Ngongo said at a briefing on Thursday.
"The situation is not yet under control; we are still on the upward trend generally," he said, adding that African countries need to join forces and increase funding from abroad to bring the current outbreak under control.
According to him, more than 48,000 cases of mpox have been reported in 19 countries on the continent, with the number of deaths reaching 1,048. The Central African region, which includes the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of the disease, accounts for 85.7% of infections and 99.5% of deaths on the continent.
A new strain of mpox is also spreading in Europe and has been detected in Sweden, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
"We do not want this mpox [....] to become another [...] pandemic, which would be much more severe than COVID-19," Ngongo added.