Monrovia — The escalating violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has affected testing for the infectious mpox virus disease, which has afflicted thousands in the country and the wider region.

Speaking at the weekly press briefing of the Africa Centers for Disease Control (Africa CDC), the center's Deputy Incident Manager in the DR Congo, Professor Yap Boum said the disruption caused by the fighting "reinforces the need for the decentralization of the testing lab".

The country is one of 12 considered to still have "active cases" of the disease; and is amongst three countries on the continent harboring more than 90 percent of total mpox infections. Uganda and Burundi are the other two most infected countries. Boum said the African health watchdog was "notified" of more than 500 cases of the disease in Uganda in the fourth week of reporting in 2025, out of which a little over 300 were confirmed.

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The Africa CDC official said Uganda's capital Kampala is considered the hot spot, with cases more prevalent amongst youth within the age range of 18-29, which, he says, raises the suspicion that it is being sexually transmitted. "This makes it very complex to do contact tracing because of confidentiality."

There've been more than 13,000 suspected cases from "week 1 to week 4" of the 2025 reporting period, the center said. Out of this number, more than 3000 have been confirmed in 12 countries with 107 deaths. Nine countries have "controlled cases", five of which no longer have cases - including Mauritius, South Africa, Morocco, and Gabon.

Boum expressed optimism that the start of mpox vaccination in Uganda could be a "game-changer".  He was referring to the 10,000 doses of vaccines the country received in January 2025 from the European Commission, while expressing distress over the outbreak of Ebola in the East African nation.

"We should support the fight against Ebola; not at the expense of mpox," Boum said.

Edited by Juanita Williams