Before this outbreak, Kenya had never reported mpox cases before. During this mpox outbreak, many countries — from Gambia to Burundi, from Uganda to South Sudan — have dealt with mpox for the first time. Mpox is a vaccine-preventable disease, and yet, to date about 907,000 people have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the mpox vaccine in a dozen African countries. The challenges started early on: When the WHO declared the public health emergency, it still had not green-lit the mpox vaccine. Similarly, he says, the laboratory network used to test suspected mpox cases has grown significantly in the hot spots.