Africa needs 6.4 million mpox vaccines in the next few months to address the outbreak, which is now concentrated in Sierra Leone, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

Three-quarters of Africa’s confirmed new mpox cases are in Sierra Leone, all concentrated in high-density areas in all districts, with 648 confirmed cases in the past week. Yet the country only has around 10,000 vaccine doses.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia reported its first three cases this week: parents and their baby who were diagnosed in Moyale, a town in the Oromia district near the border with Kenya.

“Given also the proximity of Somalia, and knowing all the challenges that are there, we need to be really very bold and aggressive to control this outbreak at the source so that it doesn’t expand further,” according to Dr Ngashi Ngongo, Africa CDC’s mpox incident manager.

The 16,915 confirmed cases for the first five months of this year are almost as many as the total for the entire 2024.

Mpox vaccinations are being carried out in seven countries, and while the Africa CDC has appealed for more vaccine donations, the 1.5 million LC16 vaccines from Japan are estimated to finally arrive over the weekend.

Nineteen African countries have active mpox cases, and 2,836 new suspected cases were reported in the past week. 

Meanwhile, 20 countries have cholera outbreaks affecting some 127,409 people, and addressing this is on the agenda of the African Heads of State meeting on 2 June, according to Ngongo

Seventeen member states have measles outbreaks, seven have dengue in seven member and four have Lassa fever.