Mpox iN Africa: A call for action to prevent the spread.

The surge of mpox in Africa: a call for action Mpox was previously thought to be a zoonotic disease endemic in parts of central, west, and east Africa; however, from 2022 to 2023, a large global outbreak of mpox from clade II monkeypox virus occurred, marking the first instance of sustained transmission outside of Africa since the first case of mpox in a human was identified in 1970.1 More recently, clade I monkeypox virus has been responsible for a growing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with evidence of sexual transmission suggesting the potential for global spread. The Lancet Global Health

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We have proposed the establishment of an African-led, multidisciplinary, multicountry Mpox Research Consortium (MpoxReC) in Africa with an overarching goal of establishing a research network to advance the elimination of mpox as a public health problem (with an initial focus on Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, and the Republic of the Congo). MpoxReC will integrate basic research; clinical studies; disease surveillance; risk communication; community engagement; phylogeographic, ecological, and anthropologic studies; novel studies for use of medical countermeasures; and capacity building to address mpox epidemics and ultimately eliminate its human-to-human transmission.

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