Welcome to the thirteenth issue of our report, “Mpox: Transparency and Accountability for the Global Response.”
In the wake of the U.S. health agencies’ communications and foreign aid freezes, we hope to serve as a resource for transparency on emerging outbreaks globally while continuing to provide in-depth analysis of the mpox response. We will provide brief updates on emerging outbreaks with the state of available medical countermeasures and diagnostics needed to effectively respond.
The intensification phase of the response appears to have an impact with an observed decline in suspected and confirmed cases: There has been a decrease in the average weekly case counts for both confirmed and suspected mpox cases across the continent in the last 6 weeks when compared to the first 6 weeks following the PHECS declaration in 2024. Part of the decline in cases is due to strides made in Burundi, where cases have been declining consistently since the beginning of 2025 (an average of 30 confirmed cases a week vs 200 a week in October 2024). Burundi is now preparing to move from the intensification phase of the response to the legacy phase. The deployment of community health workers, decentralization of laboratories, and intensification of active case tracing is thought to be contributing to the decline in cases across the continent. The decline in cases comes a few weeks before the Emergency Consultative Group is scheduled to review the mpox outbreak’s designation as a public health emergency of continental security on May 17th. Read more on our latest mpox and other emerging outbreaks response tracking.