By Abujah Racheal
Abuja, Dec. 18, 2025 – The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) announced a significant milestone: despite facing persistent and rising public health threats, the African continent recorded measurably improved control of infectious disease outbreaks in 2025. This progress marks a pivotal shift in the continent’s health security landscape, demonstrating the tangible impact of coordinated investment and strategy.
Prof. Yap Boum, Incident Manager for Health Emergencies at Africa CDC, detailed these achievements during the continent’s weekly virtual press briefing. He attributed the success to a multi-faceted approach centered on coordinated responses, strengthened real-time surveillance, and strategically expanded vaccination campaigns. These efforts enabled African nations to contain several high-risk outbreaks more effectively than in the previous year, 2024.
Case Studies in Success: Containing High-Threat Pathogens
The most compelling evidence of progress lies in the containment of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), a pathogen that has historically caused devastating outbreaks.
- DRC’s 16th Ebola Outbreak: Officially declared over on Dec. 1, 2025, following the standard 42-day surveillance period after the last patient’s recovery. The response achieved a remarkable over 97% contact follow-up rate, a critical metric for breaking chains of transmission. This was supported by intensified vaccination (using the effective rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine), enhanced surveillance at points of entry, and robust cross-border coordination with neighboring countries.
- Uganda’s Sudan ebolavirus Outbreak: Confirmed in January 2025 and contained within just 86 days, resulting in 14 cumulative cases and 4 deaths. The swift containment of a different Ebola species (for which a proven vaccine was not immediately available at scale) underscores advances in classic public health measures: rapid case detection, isolation, contact tracing, and community engagement.
Similarly, the continent witnessed a dramatic turnaround in the Mpox (formerly monkeypox) outbreak. “Over the last six weeks, confirmed Mpox cases declined from a peak six-week average of 1,442 to 199 cases, representing an 86 per cent reduction,” Boum reported. This success is directly linked to a historic vaccination scale-up, with more than five million doses delivered to 16 countries and over 1.95 million people receiving at least one dose. This example highlights how access to medical countermeasures can rapidly alter an outbreak’s trajectory.
Persistent Challenges: The Unfinished Agenda
Despite these victories, Prof. Boum sounded a clear alarm on ongoing crises, emphasizing that progress is uneven and foundational health systems remain vulnerable.
- Cholera: Remained the deadliest outbreak in 2025, with over 317,000 cases and 7,200 deaths across 25 member states. South Sudan, Sudan, the DRC, Angola, and Nigeria accounted for nearly 88% of cases. This outbreak is fundamentally driven by lack of access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)—a stark reminder that controlling cholera requires going beyond medical response to address root socioeconomic and infrastructural determinants.
- Diphtheria: The resurgence of this entirely vaccine-preventable disease—with over 18,000 cases and 874 deaths across 10 countries—is a critical indicator of gaps in routine childhood immunization programs. It represents a failure of primary healthcare systems and highlights populations missed by essential services.
The Strategic Pivot: From Reaction to Prevention
Building on the lessons of 2025, Prof. Boum stressed the non-negotiable need for African countries to shift from reactive outbreak firefighting to proactive, preventive public health. This paradigm shift involves:
- Strengthening Routine Immunization: Closing the immunity gaps that allowed diphtheria to return.
- Deepening Community Engagement: Building trust and integrating local knowledge into response plans for faster, more accepted interventions.
- Scaling Local Vaccine Manufacturing: As seen with Mpox, vaccine access is transformative. Africa’s security depends on reducing dependency on external supply chains for health commodities.
He highlighted the Incident Management Support Team (IMST) model as a key innovation that improved coordination among member states, partners like WHO and UNICEF, and global health institutions during emergencies. This “one-stop-shop” for coordination prevents duplication and accelerates decision-making.
The Roadmap for 2026: A Focus on Sustainable Preparedness
Looking ahead, Africa CDC will prioritize preventive preparedness. Key goals for 2026 include:
- Accelerating cholera elimination by 2030 through integrated WASH and vaccination campaigns.
- Transitioning Mpox into routine surveillance and sustained vaccination programs in endemic countries.
- Strengthening systems for emerging viral haemorrhagic fevers to replicate the Ebola success for other threats like Lassa and Marburg.
The 2025 report card from Africa CDC tells a dual story: one of demonstrable capability and resilience in facing down acute epidemics, yet a continuing struggle with endemic, poverty-related diseases that exploit systemic weaknesses. The continent’s health security future hinges on its ability to address both fronts simultaneously—harnessing the momentum from outbreak response successes to rebuild the foundational public health systems that prevent outbreaks from starting in the first place. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Deborah Coker
