Mpox outbreak hits 15 African countries: WHO

 The WHO warns of the outbreak’s complexity and low testing rates, with only 39 per cent of suspected cases tested

A total of 15 countries in the African region have been affected by the mpox outbreak since 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, warning of various clades that add “layers of complexity,” late diagnosis, and poor access to treatment.

According to the WHO’s latest report on Mpox epidemics in the African region, 15 countries in the WHO African region have active transmission of Mpox, defined as cases being reported in the past six weeks, with Ghana newly affected by Mpox outbreak as reported in early October.

In 2024, as of 29 September, the African region has recorded 37,325 suspected cases, including 996 deaths and 6,602 confirmed cases, while the majority of the cases have been identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The DRC, which has reported 30,766 suspected cases, faces a higher fatality rate due to late diagnosis and poor access to treatment in several health zones. Only 39 per cent of suspected cases have been tested in 2024, as the positivity rate among tested cases is around 55 percent, the WHO warned.

The health agency noted that a significant number of suspected Mpox cases remain untested and “thus never get confirmed” due to limited diagnostic capacity.

In the newly-released report, Ghana was listed as the latest country in the region affected by the Mpox outbreak, after it registered its first case of the year on 1 October. The patient, a young boy, with a history of rash, fever, and bodily pains, is under isolation with contact tracing ongoing, while sequencing is still ongoing place to determine the clade. The region is contending with multiple clades of the virus, further complicating response efforts, said the WHO.

Clade Ia is circulating in the Central African Republic, while Clade Ib is present in Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, and Clade IIb is reported in Nigeria and South Africa, which adds “layers of complexity” to managing the outbreak across affected countries, as per the report. SOURCE: Xinhua/GNLM