Africa CDC ends the Mpox Continental Emergency, signaling shift to elimination

ETHIOPIA—Africa has officially lifted the designation of Mpox as a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security, following recommendations from the Africa CDC Emergency Consultative Group.

Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), announced the decision during a press briefing in Ethiopia.

He emphasized that this move demonstrates the continent’s enhanced health security capabilities, effective leadership, regional cooperation, and successful international partnerships in addressing complex public health challenges.

Historic emergency declaration

The declaration of mpox as a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security in August 2024 represented a watershed moment for Africa.

This marked the first time Africa CDC exercised its expanded mandate under the revised 2022 statutes to declare a continental public health emergency and coordinate a unified response across member states.

The decision to declare the emergency stemmed from a dramatic surge in mpox transmission throughout the continent.

In 2024, Africa recorded 80,276 suspected cases and 1,340 deaths—representing more than a five-fold increase in cases and a two-fold increase in deaths compared to the same period in 2023.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo bore the heaviest burden, accounting for 96% of reported cases and 97% of deaths.

Addressing systemic inequities

For decades, mpox outbreaks in Africa received limited international attention and insufficient investment to strengthen surveillance, diagnostics, clinical management, and outbreak response capacities.

African countries had minimal access to vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics available elsewhere, despite carrying a disproportionate share of the disease burden.

These systemic inequities, combined with evolving epidemiological patterns, contributed to the scale, spread, and severity of recent outbreaks, particularly among vulnerable populations.

Coordinated response

African leadership mobilized early and decisively to address the crisis.

In April 2024, a high-level emergency regional ministerial meeting on Mpox convened in Kinshasa, catalyzing political commitment and coordinated continental action.

As the situation escalated, Africa CDC convened the Emergency Consultative Group, which assessed the evolving epidemiological context and recommended the emergency declaration.

The response achieved significant progress through collective efforts of African Union leadership, member states, communities, health workers, scientists, and partners operating through the Incident Management Support Team (IMST), co-led by Africa CDC and the World Health Organization.

The Emergency Consultative Group provided consistent strategic oversight, convening multiple times to review evidence, refine direction, and guide the IMST with scientific rigor.

Measurable impact 

Guided by the “4-Ones” principle—one team, one plan, one budget, and one monitoring and evaluation framework—the IMST demonstrated a scalable and effective model for outbreak management.

The response mobilized over USD 1 billion in financing, strengthened community-anchored surveillance through digitalized community health workers, and expanded laboratory and genomic sequencing capacity more than ten-fold.

Additionally, the initiative deployed over 5 million mpox vaccine doses across 16 countries and advanced a unified research agenda engaging more than 2,000 African and global scientists.

These efforts delivered measurable impact, whereby between peak transmission periods in early 2024 and late 2024, suspected cases declined by 40% and confirmed cases by 60%.

The case fatality rate among suspected cases fell from 2.6% to 0.6%, reflecting improved detection, care, coordination, and accountability across all levels of response.

Transition to sustained control

Dr. Kaseya clarified that lifting the emergency designation does not mark the end of mpox in Africa.

Rather, it signals a transition from emergency response to a sustained, country-led pathway toward elimination.

Mpox remains endemic in several settings, and continued vigilance, targeted investment, and innovation will remain essential to consolidate gains and prevent resurgence.

To support this transition, Africa CDC, in close collaboration with WHO and partners, will launch the Mpox Transition Roadmap to guide sustained prevention, preparedness, and control.

The roadmap aims to preserve emergency-phase gains and strengthen national systems for surveillance, laboratories, research, and risk communication.

Vaccination will remain central to this effort, alongside strengthened evidence on effectiveness and duration of immunity and accelerated local vaccine manufacturing as part of Africa’s Health Security and Sovereignty agenda.

Building on success

The mpox response has demonstrated a model that will now be institutionalized across other epidemic-prone diseases, including cholera, diphtheria, measles, and polio.

This approach anchors the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response pillar of Africa’s health security framework.

Dr. Kaseya extended sincere appreciation to African Union leadership, member states, communities, and all IMST partners.

He noted that this achievement affirms Africa’s resolve to move from emergency response to elimination, from dependency to sovereignty, and from vulnerability to resilience.