Twenty-nine African countries have reported 191,559 mpox cases since January 2024, with deaths from the pandemic nearing 2,000, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has disclosed.
In a weekly briefing on Thursday evening, Yap Boum II, deputy incident manager for mpox at the Africa CDC, said so far 29 African countries mpox-affected by the epidemic including 53,013 confirmed cases and 1,999 deaths.
Boum said that response efforts are bearing fruits, with both confirmed and suspected cases declining steadily in recent weeks compared to the peak around May.
Weekly confirmed cases have dropped by 70 percent, from 1,620 in May to 491 last week, alongside improvements in testing coverage, the incident manager said.
Boum said that critical community-based surveillance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) must be conducted to help contain the latest Ebola outbreak in the country.
At least 31 people have reportedly died in the latest Ebola outbreak in the DRC.
Patrick Otim, an official from the WHO Regional Office for Africa, told an online press briefing that 48 cases have been reported in the central province of Kasai, including 38 confirmed.
“Thirty-one patients have died, while 15 remain under treatment at an Ebola center in the Bulape health zone, the epicenter of the outbreak, and two have been discharged,” Otim added.
MG/as/APA