A Nigerian professor who alerted the world to the re-emergence of mpox in his home country has warned that experts are working “blind” on the viral disease’s latest surge in Africa because of a lack of adequate surveillance systems.
Dimie Ogoina, chair of the World Health Organization’s emergency committee of independent experts on mpox, said case numbers in an outbreak that has officially infected more than 17,000 people were likely to be underestimates because of a shortage of rapid diagnostic tests and inadequate data collection.
“We’re under-reporting cases because our surveillance system is not active enough,” Ogoina told the Financial Times. “Now that we have a new mpox [type] . . . it is time for us to rethink our surveillance system and make it more proactive,” he said.