More than 18,700 mpox cases detected in Africa since January: health agency

Mpox outbreak in Africa prompts WHO to declare international health emergency, with 18,737 cases reported.

A total of 18,737 suspected or confirmed cases of mpox were reported in Africa since the beginning of the year, including 1,200 cases in one week alone, the African Union health agency said on Saturday.

The figure accounts for three strains of the virus, of which one is the new more deadly, and more transmissible Clade 1b which prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) to declare an international health emergency — the agency's highest alert.

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To date, 3,101 confirmed and 15,636 suspected cases have been reported from 12 African Union member states, resulting in 541 deaths — a fatality rate of 2.89 percent, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement.

The hardest hit country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where the new Clade 1b strain was first detected in September 2023, has reported 1,005 cases (222 confirmed, 783 suspected) and 24 deaths in one week.

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All 26 provinces in the DRC, home to some 100 million people, have reported cases.