Africa will need about $4-billion to fight mpox, Jean Kaseya, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said when he declared a fast-spreading mpox outbreak a continent-wide public health emergency.
Suspected cases have surged past the 17,000 mark, the centre says, and Africa will need 10-million doses of mpox vaccines. At about $100 a dose, Kaseya says, most countries can’t afford them.
The latest mpox outbreak in Africa was declared an international public health emergency by the World Health Organization on 14 August.