ADDIS ABABA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has called for aggressive efforts to control mpox in southern Ethiopia to avert possible cross-border spread.
The East African country reported its first mpox case on May 25 when a 21-day-old infant tested positive in Moyale near the Kenyan border.
On Friday, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health announced that the number of cases has now reached six as three new cases were confirmed.
During an online media briefing on Thursday evening, Ngashi Ngongo, chief of staff and head of the Executive Office at Africa CDC, expressed concern due to Moyale town's close proximity to neighboring Somalia.
"The proximity to Somalia, and knowing all the challenges in Somalia, makes it that we really need to be very bold and aggressive to control this outbreak from the source so that it does not expand from the region," he said.
Meanwhile, Ngongo said that the African continent has reported 139,233 mpox cases since the start of last year. Of these, 34,824 were confirmed and about 1,788 related deaths were recorded.
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, was first detected in laboratory monkeys in 1958. It is a rare viral disease transmitted through body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials. The infection often causes fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes.
