to’In June, the World Health Organization reported a total of 934 new cases of smallpox (formerly known as monkeypox). And four deaths in 26 countries, an increase of 44.6% from May, when 646 cases and 15 deaths were reported in 26 countries.
From January 1, 2022 to June 30, 2024, a cumulative total of 99,176 chickenpox cases and 208 deaths were confirmed in 1,162 countries.
This is contained in the 35th situation report on the multinational smallpox outbreak, which provides details of the latest epidemiological trends, including an update on the geographical expansion of smallpox in the WHO African Region between July and August 2024.
The most affected WHO regions, ranked by number of laboratory-confirmed cases, were the African Region (567 cases), the Region of the Americas (175 cases), the European Region (100 cases), the Western Pacific Region (81 cases), and the South-East Asia Region (11 cases). The Eastern Mediterranean Region reported no cases in June 2024.
The UN health body warns that country notifications to the World Health Organization are declining, so it is “very likely” that the current reported global figures underestimate the true number of monkeypox cases.
In the African Region, the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported the majority (96%) of confirmed monkeypox cases in the reference month. With limited testing capacity in rural areas, only 24% of clinically compatible cases (reported as suspected) in the country were tested by 2024, with a positivity rate of approximately 65% nationally. The number of confirmed cases therefore underestimates the true burden.
This issue also provides an update on the geographical expansion of smallpox in the WHO African Region between July and August 2024, which has not yet been recorded in global surveillance data as of 30 June 2024.
Four new countries in East Africa (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda) have reported their first cases of smallpox. All cases are linked to the expanding outbreak in East and Central Africa, and all the cluster cases in these countries are in cluster 1. On the other hand, Côte d’Ivoire is experiencing an outbreak of smallpox associated with cluster 2, and South Africa has reported two additional confirmed cases.
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