DAKAR - Mpox cases continue to spread on the African continent, showing an increase of over 500 percent from last year, data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) showed on Thursday.

The World Health Organization declared mpox a global health emergency in mid-August, after a new strain began spreading from the Democratic Republic of Congo to neighboring countries.

"The situation is not yet under control, we are still on the upward trend generally," Ngashi Ngongo from Africa CDC told a briefing.

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Nineteen African countries have seen more than 48,000 suspected mpox cases including 1,048 deaths so far this year, according to the public health agency's data.

Central Africa, which is the most hit by the outbreak, accounts for 85.7 percent of cases and 99.5 percent of deaths on the continent.

The virus can be transmitted through close physical contact, including sexual contact.

Its new strain, known as clade Ib, is also spreading to Europe and was detected in Sweden, in Germany and in Britain.

"We need to continue mobilizing the political engagement and also mobilizing the financial support that is critical to get the current outbreak under control," Ngongo said.

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"We do not want this mpox, especially the clade 1b, to become another sexually transmitted pandemic, which would be much more severe than COVID-19."