The toll this year has risen in a few days from 16,000 cases and 548 deaths to 16,700 cases and “a little more than 570” deaths, Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said.
“We are talking about a continental emergency,” Kamba told a press briefing as the World Health Organisation (WHO) called on affected countries to step up vaccination programmes to counter a more deadly strain of mpox.
The WHO on Wednesday declared the mpox surge in Africa a global public health emergency. Outbreaks have been reported in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda since July. A case of the new strain has also been detected in Sweden.
