Mpox in African countries: Update 1

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reports continuing transmission of mpox in Africa. Countries reporting cases in the latest update of 10 September 2024 are:

Burundi: 1 139 cases

Cameroon: 42 cases, including 3 deaths

Central African Republic: 278 cases

Cote d’Ivoire: 181 cases, including 1 death

Democratic Republic of Congo: 25 465 cases, including 635 deaths

Gabon: 15 cases

Guinea: 24 cases

Kenya: 115 cases

Liberia: 93 cases

Nigeria: 916 cases

Uganda: 10 cases

Advice to Travellers

Mpox is a zoonotic infection that is rarely seen in travellers arriving from African countries.

Transmission between people occurs through close skin to skin contact (including during sexual contact), or through droplet spread during close contact with a person infected with mpox.

Symptoms in people commence with fever, a flu-like illness and swollen glands followed by the development of a blistering skin rash, resembling chickenpox.

Travellers should:

• observe meticulous hand hygiene if visiting or caring for ill friends and relatives
• avoid contact with primates and rodents and avoid consuming undercooked meat from these sources
• wear protective clothing, including gloves, if involved in the slaughter or care of animals in countries where this mpox

Travellers to any destination who may be sexually active during travel (including GBMSM) should:

• be aware of the risk of mpox
• practise safe sex
• avoid close, including sexual contact with someone who is unwell and may have mpox

Travellers should be advised to seek medical help during, or for 21 days after travel if they develop symptoms of mpox and have:

• had close contact with someone who may have mpox, or
• returned from African countries where mpox is present. These travellers should also be screened for malaria.

While a vaccine specifically against mpox is not available, the smallpox vaccine provides some protection.

• for information about the vaccine, see Smallpox and mpox (monkeypox): the green book, chapter 29
  

• The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) classifies Clade I mpox (Central Africa) as a high consequence infectious disease (HCID). Operational case definitions are published here.

For further information see Mpox, Sexual Health Risks and LGBT travellers

Advice to travellers will be updated as appropriate.