How PATH is supporting the DRC’s response to the growing mpox outbreak

Mpox has affected the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for decades, but the current outbreak is the most urgent yet, posing a significant public health threat to the African continent and beyond.

The current clade Ib monkeypox virus (MPXV) outbreak, which emerged in September 2023, has seen an increasing number of cases in the DRC and other countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. Cases have also been identified in Sweden and Thailand among people with recent travel history to affected countries in Africa.

The DRC remains at the epicenter, and the recent surge in cases—spread primarily through person-to-person contact—underlines the urgent need for coordinated global action.

The severity of the situation prompted both the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare mpox a public health emergency of international concern in mid-August 2024.

In response, PATH is leveraging its deep expertise and partnerships in the region, including decades of strengthening digital health systems and emergency response capabilities, to bolster the DRC’s efforts to contain the outbreak.

PATH’s long-term commitment to enhancing health service delivery in the DRC, particularly through developing digital health systems, is proving essential during this outbreak. Building on years of work with the DRC government, PATH has played a crucial role in developing the country’s digital health infrastructure, in particular through the USAID-funded Digital Square initiative.

Recently, with support from the Gates Foundation and in partnership with Bluesquare, PATH has supported the creation and set-up of DRC’s Public Health Emergency Operations Center (PHEOC), the first central entity responsible for coordinating all epidemic responses in the DRC, as part of the country’s new Universal Health Coverage (UHC) plan.

And now, PATH is a health information management partner in the surveillance pillar of the Africa CDC/WHO Mpox Continental Preparedness and Response Plan for Africa.

“We've been continuously working to integrate data on various health aspects into a unified system. Now, we’re adapting and applying these systems to address the specific challenges of mpox, enabling quicker data transmission, analysis, and outbreak response over a massive geography,” says Trad Hatton, Director of the PATH Central Africa Hub and DRC Country Director.

“Our objective for this mpox outbreak in the DRC is to make the supportive data systems better than any previous outbreak response.”

The DRC’s EOC, supported by PATH, has become central to the country’s response efforts, providing real-time data to track cases, manage resources, and coordinate actions across regions. This robust system is now being adapted to confront the current mpox outbreak, offering a framework that can be replicated in other affected countries.

PATH will continue enhancing data systems in the DRC and surrounding region, with a specific focus on the following:

1. Continuing to provide technical assistance to the EOC in data system design and implementation in the DRC, with plans to extend this support to other affected countries.
2. Engaging with the DRC EOC as it coordinates with the Africa CDC, the US Agency for International Development, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, WHO, and other donors to finalize data collection tools that can be utilized across mpox-affected countries.
3. Training data collectors and managers in DRC provinces and newly affected countries to ensure high-quality data collection and regional coordination.

These efforts aim to build a robust, interconnected data infrastructure and yield granular data to enable a deeper understanding of mpox transmission to inform a rapid, effective, and inclusive response to the mpox outbreak across the region and beyond.

Of course, digital health infrastructure is one piece of the puzzle—effective emergency response must be built into a responsive, integrated primary health care system.

This must include education and support for health care workers who are driving emergency response efforts. PATH is leveraging its expertise in enhancing community health systems to strengthen mpox sensitization and case-finding across the DRC. Community health workers (CHWs) play a critical role in raising awareness, contact tracing, and linking affected individuals to care.

This approach ensures that even communities in remote areas, who often are at high risk of being overlooked, are included in the outbreak response.

Through our decades of work supporting and enhancing CHW capacity through HIV, malaria, and maternal health programming, the DRC’s extensive network of CHWs is now being mobilized to address the current mpox outbreak. PATH is working with the DRC Ministry of Health to train CHWs to detect early signs of infection, disseminate public health information, and connect cases with local health services, ensuring timely diagnosis and treatment.

Additionally, as the first donations of mpox vaccines are now available in the DRC, PATH will support the DRC government in upcoming mpox vaccine campaigns.

“In the DRC, we’ve successfully introduced COVID-19 vaccines, and we’re currently rolling out malaria vaccines in several countries,” says Trad. “This experience positions us well to support governments in the introduction of mpox vaccines, pending donor support and regulatory approvals.”

With decades of hands-on experience in multiple provinces of the DRC, PATH is well-positioned to assist not only in the DRC but also to extend its support to other affected countries as the mpox outbreak spreads regionally and globally.

In the face of the rapidly evolving situation, PATH’s long-standing partnerships with the governments of DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda have become increasingly vital. These relationships have been built over years of collaboration on various health initiatives, including digital health systems, emergency response, and product development.

“Through our collaboration with the CDC Atlanta’s project Global Health Security Agenda and separate funding from the Gates Foundation, PATH has supported outbreak responses for three Ebola events, COVID-19, country-wide measles outbreaks, yellow fever, and the ongoing polio outbreak,” Trad says.

“This hands-on experience has honed our operational capabilities and our ability to support governments in their strategic decision-making processes.”