The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and Rwanda’s health minister has revealed that although the deadly Marburg virus outbreak in their country is lessening due to vaccinations of the most susceptible individuals, such as healthcare workers, Mpox cases are still spreading to new African nations.

Early in October, Rwanda started giving out doses of the Marburg virus vaccine to contain an outbreak of the disease that resembles Ebola in the East African nation.

According to Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana, the number of new infections has now dropped by more than 50% as compared to the first two weeks. She also stated that most patients were healing in medical facilities and that the nation had gone days without any new cases or fatalities.

“Overall, the trend is very encouraging, very positive, both on the new infections declining significantly, and also the mortality reducing,” Nsanzimana told reporters in an online briefing.

According to the ministry, there have been 15 fatalities and 62 confirmed instances of viral hemorrhagic fever as of late. According to him, nine patients were still receiving treatment while 38 had fully recovered from the illness.

At the same briefing, Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa CDC, said that the Mpox outbreak, which the World Health Organisation had labelled a public health emergency of worldwide concern, was still spreading over the continent.

According to Kaseya, the afflicted countries increased from six African Union members in April to eighteen in October.

“We don’t want to see all African countries being affected. This is why we need to intensify our efforts,” he said.

According to Africa CDC data, there have been over 42,000 suspected cases of Mpox in the continent, with 1,100 deaths reported so far this year.

Kaseya stated that although over $800 million has been committed to the organization’s fight against Mpox, donors are taking their time to provide the funds and vaccines that are required to speed up the response.

“We want now to see concrete action on the ground to stop this outbreak… We cannot continue like that. We need to save the lives of people, we need to give a future to our continent.”

The Deputy Director of Amnesty International for East and Southern Africa, Vongai Chikwanda, has called on Zambian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release a journalist, Thomas Zgambo, who is currently being detained for doing his job.

Media reports have it that Zgambo, a contributor to the Zambia Whistleblower website, was arrested on October 16, 2024, while dining at a mall and is currently being held at Ridgeway Police Station.

In a statement issued on Saturday in Lusaka, Chikwanda stated that journalism was not a crime and highlighted that Zambia’s Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression and media freedom.

“Authorities must uphold their constitutional and international human rights obligations and allow journalists to freely carry out their work,” Chikwanda said in the statement.

Chikwanda noted that Zgambo had not been officially charged, while his arrest followed the publication of an article perceived as critical of government officials.

He pointed out that Zgambo’s arrest comes just days after President Hakainde Hichilema reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to press freedom and the promotion of access to information, alleging that Zambian authorities had harassed and intimidated Zgambo in previous years.

It will be recalled that in August, Zgambo was arrested and detained for two days before being released on bail for sedition after publishing an article calling for government transparency regarding a rental property allegedly linked to President Hichilema.

He was arrested twice in 2023 for his critical reporting, and in 2013, faced sedition charges related to his coverage of then-president Michael Sata.