Africa has reported an average of 3,000 mpox cases weekly so far in 2025, the continent’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said, warning that the disease is spreading rapidly.
22 African countries have reported 117,678 cases since January 2024. Of these, 26,927 were confirmed and more than 1,700 related deaths were recorded, Yap Boum, deputy incident manager for mpox at Africa CDC, said Thursday evening in an online media briefing.
Data from the African Union’s specialised healthcare agency indicated that the African continent has reported 39,840 mpox cases so far in 2025, including 9,020 confirmed ones.
During last week alone, the continent reported 2,768 new cases, including 508 confirmed ones and 13 new related deaths. It said Uganda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) cumulatively reported 94 percent of the confirmed cases during the past week.
“Unfortunately, we see that the number of cases is still increasing both in terms of suspected and confirmed cases. We have an average of 3,000 suspected cases weekly so far in 2025,” said Boum.
“More critically, in the past three months, we have already had more than 50 percent of the total number of cases that we had in 2024,” he added.
The DRC, which is at the epicenter of the current mpox outbreak in Africa, has reported a total of 90,406 mpox cases since the start of last year, including 2,099 cases during the past week alone, according to data from the Africa CDC.
In mid-August last year, the Africa CDC declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of continental security. Shortly afterward, the World Health Organization designated the viral disease as a public health emergency of international concern, marking the second time in two years that it activated its highest level of global alert for mpox.
MG/as/APA