Mpox spread: Why the strategy that eliminated Ebola is worth replicating

By Firmain Eric Mbadinga

Mpox, an infectious disease caused by a virus in the same family as smallpox, threatens to cut a swathe through Africa with the major outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to official data, an estimated 19,000-odd people across 12 countries of the continent have contracted mpox to date.

While Congo remains the focus of the new "Clade Ib" variant, the spread of the disease in 11 other African countries is of immediate concern.

A few weeks ago, the African Union's healthcare agency, Africa CDC, reported that the scale of mpox since the first human case was recorded in 1970 had grown to a potential epidemic, especially on the continent.

So, where do healthcare agencies stand on averting what Africa and the rest of the world can't afford?

Experts such as Dr Jean Vivien Mombouli from Congo believe that Africa's Ebola virus response is a template worth replicating.

Lessons from the past

The last Ebola outbreak in Africa was contained in 2022 in the DRC, with Dr Mombouli being one of those at the vanguard of the medical response in his native country and Guinea, where the disease claimed at least 2,500 lives between 2013 and 2016.

The response cell of which Dr Mombouli was a part collaborated with the cell in Kinshasa for a concerted response at the height of the outbreak.

As a specialist in molecular physiology and pharmacology, he is convinced that early action is crucial if the continent is to reverse the progression of the mpox virus.

"We initiated parallel human and animal health investigations to delimit forest areas where the virus would circulate for a year. We also implemented similar strategies to extinguish the epidemic in Guinea," Dr Mombouli tells TRT Afrika.

In Congo's North Kivu, where Ebola had been raging for two years, the response team benefited from the expertise of Prof Jean-Jacques Muyembe, a microbiologist who co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976 and is currently director of the DRC's National Institute for Biomedical Research.

Based on Muyembe's advice, workshops involving experts, military officials and others were organised to frame a compelling strategy for areas where the virus had been circulating.

The workshops enabled better coordination for public health interventions, accelerating the containment of the epidemic.

"In addition to coordinated strategies and collective synergy to contain a virus like mpox, it is important to raise awareness of the disease, its origin and mode of transmission. The fundamental thing to note is that there are two dynamics of circulation of mpox clades —zoonotic animal-human circulation and sexual human-to-human transmission,'' explains Dr Mombouli.

Banking on vaccination

In the DRC, there have been at least 500 deaths from almost 14,000 suspected cases since the appearance of the new variant.

The Congolese authorities aim to step up their response to the public health emergency with 3.5 million Mpox vaccine doses.

At a news conference last week, health minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said the government was pooling all the resources available to purchase vaccines. He also announced that the US had promised the first 50,000 doses, while Japan had committed three million doses for children.

The World Health Organization's declaration of a "public health emergency of international concern" in mid-August is expected to spur vaccine delivery for other affected countries on the continent.

In addition to the Congo Basin, the disease has spread to Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Thailand, South Africa, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic.

Mpox is known to trigger high mortality among people with compromised immune system. There is also loss of sight in the case of ocular manifestations. In some cases, facial disfigurement takes place.

These disease manifestations are all part of the highly transmissible Clade Ib strain.

"We are at the preliminary stage. We need the affected countries to mobilise resources ahead of time. Since Mpox spreads more slowly than Ebola, it will enable us to map the risk in West Africa and the countries of the Congo Basin, including Angola, Zambia, South Sudan and Chad," says Dr Mombouli.

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