DAKAR, Sept 12 (Reuters) – The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is able to raise $600 million to fight a surging mpox outbreak on the continent, the agency’s head said on Thursday.

The World Health Organization declared mpox a global health emergency in mid-August, after a new strain began spreading from the Democratic Republic of Congo to neighbouring countries.

“If you want to know if I’m positive that we can raise the $600 million, I will safely say yes,” Jean Kaseya, director general of Africa CDC, told reporters.

In August, the agency put the estimated cost of the mpox response at $245 million and said that it had secured only about $20 million. Kaseya did not say why the cost, which excludes the cost of vaccines, had increased.

Kaseya said funding could come from African Union countries, development partners, philanthropies and the private sector.

He said that international vaccine alliance GAVI had pledged assistance and Africa CDC was in discussions with The Pandemic Fund, a multilateral organisation that funds pandemic response.

Kaseya said that a transfer of technology to the continent would reduce the price of vaccines by 80%-90%.

Africa CDC said last month that talks had started with Danish biotech firm Bavarian Nordic BAVA.CO to manufacture its mpox vaccine in Africa, which Kaseya said would help make the vaccine affordable for African countries.

Kaseya will announce the amount raised at the U.N. General Assembly in New York this month.

Africa has seen over 26,000 suspected mpox cases including 724 deaths so far this year, Africa CDC data showed.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, children under 15 years account for about 60% of suspected cases and 80% of deaths this year, UNICEF said in a statement on Thursday.

(Reporting by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)