KINSHASA - Africa's public health agency is set to declare an mpox emergency as early as next week, saying the viral infection's rate of spread is alarming, as a new variant moves across Democratic Republic of Congo's borders.

Mpox is transmitted through close contact and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. Most cases are mild but it can kill.

The new variant, known as Clade Ib and circulating mostly in Congo, appears to spread more easily through routine close contact, as seems to be the case among children.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Director General, Jean Kaseya, said on Thursday that reported cases in Africa had risen by 79% from 2022-2023 and by 160% from 2023-24.

"This is one of the aspects that is alarming us," he said.

Kaseya added he would have calls with the heads of the African Union (AU) and the African Union Commission on Tuesday to "get their blessing" and guidance to declare a public health emergency - a new power for the continental body. He said that most likely he would make the declaration next week.

Doing so would enable the Africa CDC to better coordinate cross-border responses and would obligate member countries to notify new cases to the continental body, he said.

It would also enable mobilisation of domestic and international resources and accelerate vaccine research and development, Kaseya said, adding he had been in talks with executives of the German drugmaker BioNTech about raising vaccine output after the likely declaration next week.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Africa is experiencing an unprecedented rise in cases this year.

Congo has seen over 13,000 suspected mpox cases including 503 deaths so far this year, the WHO's spokesperson in Congo told Reuters, taking the total number of cases there since the start of 2023 to about 27,000, with more than 1,000 deaths.

To the east of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya, which were previously unaffected by mpox, have all reported cases of the new variant since mid-July, a WHO statement said.

"Further analysis is required to better understand the patterns of transmission to refine the response to the outbreak," the U.N. agency said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a second health alert on Wednesday to notify clinicians and health departments about the deadly new strain.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has promised to convene an emergency committee to discuss whether the outbreak in Congo represents a public health emergency of international concern.

On Monday, Africa CDC said it had been granted $10.4 million in emergency funding from the AU for its mpox response.

  - Reuters