The spread of mpox in Uganda is “of great concern”, with some 830 recorded cases in 19 states, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

Uganda’s first recorded case was in Nakasongola Prison in Central Uganda, but new cases have been reported close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) while “new clusters” in fishing communities are a cause for concern, Dr Ngashi Ngongo, Africa CDC’s mpox lead, told a media briefing on Thursday.

In the past week, 61 new cases were confirmed and one death, he added.

Unlike the DRC where children make up half the mpox cases, only 12,5% of Uganda’s mpox cases are children. The majority, 63%, are adult men and clade 1b, which can be sexually transmitted, is the dominant strain. 

Meanwhile, Mauritius has recorded its first mpox case – and the UK recorded its first case of Clade 1b case in someone who recently travelled to a country with mpox, said Ngongo.

The continent’s weekly case tally increased by 2,766 cases – a similar increase to previous weeks. The vast majority of cases are in the DRC and Burundi.

Almost 900,000 mpox vaccines have been distributed to nine countries, with vaccination campaigns going well in the DRC and Rwanda. However, Nigeria postponed its planned vaccination campaign this week.

Four more Marburg cases

Meanwhile, Rwanda recorded four new Marburg cases in the past two weeks – a health worker (reported on last week) and three contacts of other cases, according to Dr Yvan Butera, Minister of State in the health ministry. Two people have also died in the past week.

Rwanda has confirmed 66 Marburg cases and 15 deaths reported, a case-fatality rate of around 23%. Close to 6,000 people have now been tested while close to 1,600 frontline workers have been vaccinated, said Butera.

The source of the outbreak has been traced to fruit bats in a mine near Kigali, which infected the index case who had visited the mine.

The Sabine Vaccine Institute has sent a further 1,000 of its investigational vaccines to Rwanda, the company reported on Thursday. These will be used for a randomized clinical trial arm within the ongoing open-label study.

Previously, Rwanda had rejected the World Health Organization (WHO) protocol, which would have involved a control group that got vaccinated three weeks after the trial group, according to the journal, Science.

Instead, Rwanda opted to vaccinate all trial participants  “as part of a Phase 2 rapid response open-label trial, sponsored by the Rwanda Biomedical Centre”, according to Sabin. 

“Under the updated protocol, sponsored by the Rwanda Biomedical Center, approximately 1,000 at-risk individuals, including mine workers, will receive Sabin’s single-dose investigational vaccine in a one-to-one randomization. Half will receive the vaccine immediately, and the other half 21 days later to align with the end of the disease incubation period,” according to Sabin.

Designed to prevent illness before exposure to the virus, Sabin’s Marburg vaccine has not yet been proven to have clinical benefit for recipients of the vaccine.

Image Credits: Sabin Vaccine Institute.