Africa CDC declares end to Mpox as continental health emergency

Africa has lifted Mpox as a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS) following recommendations from the Emergency Consultative Group of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

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The announcement was made by the Director General of Africa CDC, Jean Kaseya, in a statement posted on the organisation’s website on Friday.

Mr Kaseya said the decision reflects Africa’s growing capacity to manage complex public health challenges through strengthened health systems, political leadership, regional cooperation and effective international partnerships.

“Following the recommendation of the Africa CDC Emergency Consultative Group, I hereby announce the lifting of Mpox as a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security,” he said.

Background to the emergency declaration

The declaration of Mpox as a continental public health emergency in August 2024 was historic.

It was the first time Africa CDC used its expanded 2022 mandate to declare and coordinate a continental response to a public health crisis.

The decision came as transmission surged across Africa, with more than 80,000 suspected cases and 1,340 deaths recorded in 2024, more than five times the number of cases and double the deaths reported during the same period in 2023.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo bore the greatest burden, accounting for 96 per cent of cases and 97 per cent of deaths.

Longstanding gaps in Mpox response

Africa CDC noted that for decades, Mpox outbreaks on the continent received limited international attention and insufficient investment in surveillance, diagnostics, clinical care and outbreak response.

According to the agency, African countries had little or no access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics that were available elsewhere, despite carrying a disproportionate share of the disease burden.

These longstanding inequities,the agency noted, combined with changing epidemiological patterns, contributed to the scale, spread and severity of recent outbreaks, particularly among vulnerable populations.

Coordinated continental action

In response to the growing outbreak, African leaders convened a High Level Emergency Regional Ministerial Meeting on Mpox in Kinshasa in April 2024, which helped galvanise political commitment and coordinated action across the continent.

As transmission continued to rise, Africa CDC said it activated its Emergency Consultative Group, which assessed the evolving situation and recommended the declaration of a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security.

Since then, the agency said significant progress has been achieved through the collective efforts of African Union leadership, member states, communities, health workers, scientists and partners operating through the Incident Management Support Team, which was co-led by Africa CDC and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Guided by the one team, one plan, one budget and one monitoring and evaluation framework approach, the response mobilised over $1 billion in financing, strengthened community based surveillance through digitalised community health workers, and expanded laboratory and genomic sequencing capacity more than tenfold.

The response also led to the deployment of more than five million Mpox vaccine doses across 16 countries and the advancement of a unified research agenda involving over 2,000 African and global scientists.

Impact and transition

The Africa CDC said these interventions produced measurable results.

Between early 2025 and late 2025, suspected Mpox cases declined by 40 per cent, while confirmed cases dropped by 60 per cent.

The case fatality rate among suspected cases also fell significantly, from 2.6 per cent to 0.6 per cent.

Despite this progress, the agency stressed that the lifting of the emergency status does not signal the end of Mpox in Africa.

The disease remains endemic in several settings, and sustained vigilance and investment are required to prevent resurgence.

Next steps

To consolidate gains made during the emergency phase, Africa CDC said it will launch a Mpox Transition Roadmap in collaboration with the WHO and other partners.

The roadmap will guide sustained prevention, preparedness and control efforts, while strengthening national systems for surveillance, laboratories, research and risk communication.

Vaccination, they noted, will remain central to the strategy, alongside efforts to generate stronger evidence on vaccine effectiveness and duration of immunity and to accelerate local vaccine manufacturing as part of Africa’s health security agenda.

Africa CDC added that lessons from the Mpox response will be institutionalised across other epidemic prone diseases, including cholera, diphtheria, measles and polio.

Mr Kaseya commended African Union leadership, member states, communities and partners for their roles in the response, noting that the progress made demonstrates Africa’s shift from emergency response to elimination, from dependency to sovereignty and from vulnerability to resilience.

Mpox

Mpox according to the WHO is a disease caused by the monkeypox virus, a species of the genus Orthopoxvirus.

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The disease is endemic in parts of Central and West Africa and can spread through close physical contact, including contact with skin lesions, bodily fluids, contaminated materials, or infected animals.

Symptoms typically include fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes and a rash that can progress to painful skin lesions.

While most cases are mild and self-limiting, Mpox can lead to severe illness and death, particularly among children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems.