Africa Would Have Exceeded 18 Thousand Cases of Mpox
The data are derived from a document released this Saturday by the African Union’s health agency, Africa CDC.
An estimated total of 18,737 suspected or confirmed cases of mpox, a disease formerly known as monkey smallpox, were registered since the beginning of the year.
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The data are derived from a document released this Saturday by the African Union’s health agency, Africa CDC.
The agency reported that so far this year, 3,101 confirmed cases, 15,636 suspected cases and 541 deaths from the disease were recorded in 12 countries of the continent.
This figure implies that just over three months from the end of the year, the number of cases in 2023 was already exceeded, which amounted to 14,838.
The agency in turn points to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the epicentre of the epidemic. The central African nation, which is affected by civil wars and several regional wars, accounts for almost all reported cases, with 16,800 suspected or confirmed cases and at least 500 deaths from mpox in that country.
The next country on the list of countries most affected by the epidemic is neighbouring Burundi, where 173 cases (39 confirmed, 134 suspected) were reported, an increase of 75 per cent in one week.
