Addis Ababa: The number of mpox cases reported in Africa in the past three months has been more than half of the total reported in the whole 2024, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said. 

The continent has reported 39,840 mpox cases so far this year, including 9,020 confirmed ones, Yap Boum, Deputy Incident Manager for mpox at the Africa CDC, told an online briefing.

In the previous week alone, Africa reported 2,768 new cases, including 508 confirmed ones and 13 new related deaths, Boum said.

Since the start of last year, 22 mpox-affected African countries have reported 117,678 cases. Of those, 26,927 were confirmed and more than 1,700 related deaths were recorded.

Uganda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) cumulatively reported 94 per cent of the confirmed cases during the previous week, the Africa CDC said.

"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 critical, in the past three months, we have already had more than 50 per cent of the total number of cases that we had in 2024."

The DRC, which is at the epicentre 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, Xinhua news agency reported.

Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease typically transmitted through body fluids, respiratory droplets, and other contaminated materials. The infection often causes fever, rash, and swollen lymph nodes.

In 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.

(IANS)