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Almost 30,000 suspected mpox cases in Africa this year, WHO says
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LONDON (Reuters) – Nearly 30,000 suspected mpox cases have been
LONDON (Reuters) – Nearly 30,000 suspected mpox cases have been reported in Africa so far this year, most of them in Democratic Republic of Congo where tests have run out, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
More than 800 people died of suspected mpox across the continent in that time, the U.N. health body said in its report. Congo’s central African neighbour Burundi has also been hit by a growing outbreak, it added.
Mpox can spread through close contact. Usually mild, it is fatal in rare cases. It typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.
The WHO statement did not give comparative figures from previous years. The African Union’s public health agency has said 14,957 cases and 739 deaths were reported from seven affected states in 2023 – a 78.5% increase in new cases from 2022.
There were 29,342 suspected cases and 812 deaths across Africa from January to Sept. 15 this year, according to the WHO report.
A total of 2,082 confirmed cases were reported across the world in August alone, the highest since November 2022, the WHO said.
On Saturday, the World Bank’s pandemic fund said it would give $128.89 million to ten African countries to help fight the outbreak.
(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease that can spread through close contact. It typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body, though it is usually mild and fatal in rare cases.
Suspected cases refer to individuals who exhibit symptoms of a disease but have not yet been confirmed through laboratory testing. In the context of mpox, these cases are reported based on clinical signs and epidemiological links.
An outbreak is the occurrence of cases of a disease in a population, community, or region that is greater than what is normally expected. Outbreaks can occur in specific geographic areas and can be caused by infectious agents.
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