On 24 May 2025, Moyale Hospital reported a suspected case of Mpox in a 21-day-previous female unusual child presenting with generalized skin lesions and excessive-grade fever, resulting from publicity to her parents. Subsequent testing confirmed Mpox virus infection in 5 individuals aged from less than one month to 30 years.
Moyale’s location as a excessive-traffic border town between Ethiopia and Kenya created heightened rank-border transmission threat. Given the rapid spread and vulnerable case profile, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MoH) formally declared an outbreak.
On 27 May, the World Health Organization (WHO) Ethiopia nation place of business, in toughen of the federal government response, deployed a multidisciplinary surge team, including epidemiologists, case management specialists, infection prevention and preserve an eye on (IPC) specialists, threat communication and neighborhood engagement (RCCE) officers, and mental health and psychosocial toughen (MHPSS) practitioners. The primary goals were:
Habits rapid outbreak assessment and situational analysis.
• Fortify surveillance and laboratory confirmation capacity.
• Fortify case management and IPC interventions.
• Implement coordinated RCCE and MHPSS activities.
• Enhance rank-border collaboration with Kenyan health authorities.
WHO co-chaired daily incident management meetings with MoH, Oromia and Somali Regional Health Bureaus, and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI). Using rapid mapping tools, the team identified excessive-threat transmission zones, prioritized 10 official and unofficial border points for active surveillance, and integrated Mpox case definitions into routine screening.
Case management capacity was scaled through the establishment of 5 isolation items. Over 30 m³ of Personal Protecting Instruments, essential medicines, and Infection Prevention and Regulate offers were brought to facilities beforehand lacking minimum protecting tools. WHO trained health staff got targeted classes on Mpox clinical recognition, safe isolation protocols, and case adjust to-up.
RCCE interventions included door-to-door contact tracing by trained neighborhood volunteers, dissemination of information via a cell loudspeaker unit in three local languages, and targeted awareness classes in colleges, mosques, and during Eid al-Adha gatherings—reaching an estimated 92,000 individuals.
“The success in Moyale reveals that when communities are part of the response, belief grows and outcomes adjust to. This outbreak may have been far worse without that collaboration,” said Innocent Komakech, WHO Ethiopia Incident Manager for the Mpox response.
Mental Health and Psychosocial Fortify (MHPSS) services were embedded into the response, offering counselling to patients, families, and frontline staff. Spiritual leaders were briefed to counter stigma and misinformation. Notably, patient refusals of testing decreased following structured counselling classes.
Challenges included intermittent supply chain constraints, logistical barriers to reaching distant settlements, and initial neighborhood hesitancy due to stigma and perceived financial loss from quarantine measures. Nonetheless, sustained multi-sectoral coordination and rank-border engagement enabled a marked reduction in unusual cases.
By the finish of WHO’s mission on 21 June 2025, epidemiological data confirmed a downward fashion in reported cases, all isolation facilities remained operational, and trained local volunteers maintained neighborhood surveillance systems.
These interventions were supported by funding from the Govt of Japan, the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), and the European Union’s Civil Safety and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).
