The African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has said that monkeypox outbreaks had been seen and contained on the continent since 2020.

On Thursday, the acting director of the Africa CDC noted outbreaks contained in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic.

“During this pandemic, we have had several outbreaks of monkeypox on the continent … We also expect that other outbreaks will come and we’ll handle it in the usual way,” Ahmed Ogwell Ouma said.  “We are however concerned at the multiple countries outside, especially in Europe, that are seeing these outbreaks of monkeypox. It would be very useful for knowledge to be shared regarding what the source of these outbreaks actually are.”

Mr Ouma’s comments come as the United Kingdom confirmed a case of the rare and sometimes fatal animal-borne disease. Mr Ouma said the Africa CDC was collaborating with its European counterparts to investigate the cause of the outbreaks.

“…Because when you see monkeypox in environments that are far away from a forested area then for sure as far as public health is concerned it raises a lot of questions,” Mr Ouma said. 

British health authorities had on May 7 informed the World Health Organisation of the confirmed case in an individual who had recently returned to the country from Nigeria.