The number of cases of illness with the virus that causes monkey pox is increasing day by day, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
Mpox killed 25 people in Congo. Photo source: archive
In its latest report on the mpox situation, the WHO said that Guinea in West Africa reported its first case of infection with the disease, while the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Central Africa is the country more affected.
This year, 85% of the approximately 6,600 laboratory-confirmed mpox cases were recorded in Congo. In Africa, 32 confirmed people with mpox have died this year, 25 of them in this country.
Because of a lack of testing capacity, only 37 percent of suspected cases in Congo are being tested, the WHO said. The suspicion was confirmed in about 55% of the cases, the organization also stated.
The actual number of cases of the disease is much higher
Countries report the number of suspected cases to the WHO, but these figures are only partially conclusive due to insufficient testing.
Information campaigns could increase the level of concern about mpox and cause more people with rashes to visit clinics.
The number of suspected cases in 2024 rose by around 7% to 31,500 in the week to 22 September.
The neighboring and much smaller country, Burundi, is also increasingly affected. Since the beginning of the epidemic in July, 1,879 suspected cases have been reported, of which 80% after August 12.
Much more testing is done in Burundi than in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with approximately 93% of suspected cases being further investigated. Here, the suspicion of mpox infection was confirmed in approximately 40% of cases.
About a third of the people affected are children under the age of five.
