So far, the continent has registered a total of 18,700 infections since early this year, when the world was barely recovering from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, which severely damaged the world economy, especially in the poorest countries.
The AU health body reported the deaths in a statement, locating the epicenter of the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, adding that there are at least 19,000 suspected cases of Mpox in the whole continent.
For its part, the Africa Center for Disease Control revealed today that 3,101 confirmed cases and 15,636 suspected ones have been accounted for in 12 AU member states, with a mortality rate of 2.89 percent.
The figure encompasses three strains of the virus, one of which, the Clade 1b, is the most contagious and prompted the World Health Organization to declare an international health emergency in the middle of this week, the highest alert category issued by the agency.
Adding to such dire scenario comes the high price of the MVA-BN vaccine, the only one approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency to immunize against the disease, which leaves it out of reach of low- and middle-income countries.
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