Ethiopia has reported its first confirmed cases of mpox, involving a 21-day-old infant and the child’s mother in the southern town of Moyale, near the Kenyan border. The Ministry of Health and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute disclosed the cases in a joint statement on Sunday, May 25, noting that the infant’s father had recently travelled across the border—raising the likelihood of cross-border transmission from neighbouring countries where mpox has previously been detected.
Moyale, a key trade and transport corridor straddling the frontiers of Ethiopia, Kenya, and near Somalia, has become the focal point of containment efforts. Several family members who came into contact with the infected pair have been placed under quarantine as public health teams intensify contact tracing operations. Authorities are working to determine the precise source of the infection, but initial investigations point to the porous nature of the border as a critical vulnerability.
Though this is the first mpox confirmation within Ethiopia’s borders, the country has maintained heightened surveillance since the World Health Organization designated the outbreak a global health emergency in 2022. Officials have reassured the public that early intervention measures are underway to curb any potential community spread, particularly in high-risk regions along Ethiopia’s southern periphery.