Africa has officially lifted Mpox as a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS) following recommendations from the Africa CDC Emergency Consultative Group (ECG).

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said the decision reflects the continent’s strengthened health security architecture, effective leadership, regional cooperation and successful international partnerships in managing complex public health threats.

Mpox was declared a continental health emergency in August 2024 after a sharp escalation in transmission across the continent. In 2024 alone, Africa recorded 80,276 suspected cases and 1,340 deaths, representing more than a fivefold increase in cases and a twofold rise in deaths compared with the same period in 2023. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) accounted for 96 per cent of reported cases and 97 per cent of deaths.

Announcing the lifting of the emergency, Africa CDC Director-General, Dr Jean Kaseya, noted that for decades, mpox outbreaks in Africa attracted limited international attention and inadequate investment to strengthen surveillance, diagnostics, clinical management and outbreak response capacities. He said African countries had little access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics available elsewhere, despite carrying a disproportionate share of the disease burden.

According to him, these systemic inequities, coupled with evolving epidemiological patterns, contributed to the scale, spread and severity of recent outbreaks, particularly among vulnerable populations.

Kaseya said African leadership responded early and decisively. In April 2024, a High-Level Emergency Regional Ministerial Meeting on Mpox was convened in Kinshasa, which helped galvanise political commitment and coordinated continental action. As the situation escalated, Africa CDC convened the ECG, which assessed the epidemiological context and recommended the declaration of a PHECS.

Since then, significant progress has been recorded through the collective efforts of African Union leadership, member states, communities, health workers, scientists and partners operating under the Incident Management Support Team (IMST), co-led by Africa CDC and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He disclosed that the response mobilised more than $1 billion in financing, strengthened community-based surveillance through digitised community health workers, expanded laboratory and genomic sequencing capacity more than tenfold, deployed over five million mpox vaccine doses across 16 countries, and advanced a unified research agenda involving more than 2,000 African and global scientists.

Kaseya explained that throughout the response, the ECG provided strategic oversight, meeting regularly to review evidence, refine direction and guide the IMST. Operating under the “4-Ones” principle, one team, one plan, one budget, and one monitoring and evaluation framework, the IMST demonstrated a scalable and effective outbreak management model.

These efforts, he said, delivered measurable results. Between peak transmission in early 2025 and late 2025, suspected cases declined by 40 per cent, while confirmed cases dropped by 60 per cent. The case fatality rate among suspected cases fell from 2.6 per cent to 0.6 per cent, reflecting improvements in detection, care, coordination and accountability.

Kaseya stressed that lifting the PHECS does not mean the end of mpox in Africa, but rather marks a transition from emergency response to a sustained, country-led pathway toward elimination. Mpox, he said, remains endemic in several settings, requiring continued vigilance, targeted investment and innovation to prevent resurgence.

To support this transition, Africa CDC, in collaboration with WHO and partners, will launch a Mpox Transition Roadmap to guide sustained prevention, preparedness and control, preserve gains made during the emergency phase, and strengthen national systems for surveillance, laboratories, research and risk communication. Vaccination, he added, will remain central, alongside efforts to generate stronger evidence on vaccine effectiveness and duration of immunity, as well as accelerated local vaccine manufacturing under Africa’s health security and sovereignty agenda.

Kaseya further noted that lessons from the mpox response will now be institutionalised across other epidemic-prone diseases, including cholera, diphtheria, measles and polio, as part of Africa’s pandemic prevention, preparedness and response framework.

“This marks a significant milestone in Africa’s collective journey toward strengthened health security,” he said. “Following the recommendation of the Africa CDC Emergency Consultative Group, I hereby announce the lifting of mpox as a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security. This decision reflects Africa’s growing capacity to lead complex public health responses, grounded in strong political leadership, regional solidarity and effective international partnerships.”

He added that the achievement underscores Africa’s resolve to move from emergency response to elimination, from dependency to sovereignty, and from vulnerability to resilience.