Two outbreaks of mpox in sub-Saharan Africa are raising concerns about the continued spread of the virus globally —- and the surge of a deadlier strain than the one that began circling the globe in 2022. That outbreak sickened nearly 100,000 people, with 203 deaths. It eventually slowed down, but mpox never went away.
Formerly called monkeypox and caused by the monkeypox virus, mpox continues cropping up across the globe, from France to Mexico. In May, 26 countries reported a total of 646 new cases and 15 deaths. The biggest share of new cases right now is in Africa.
Last week, the World Health Organization called attention to an mpox outbreak in South Africa. Officials there confirmed 20 cases between May 8 and July 2, with 18 hospitalizations and three deaths. Another concern is the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an outbreak that began last year has been accelerating – and where the variant is dramatically deadlier than the mpox strain of 2022.
In 2023, DRC reported 14,434 suspected cases and 728 deaths. The pace seems to be increasing this year, with more than 11,000 cases and 445 deaths already reported in 2024, according to the World Health Organization. A deadly outbreak in DRC The variant circulating in DRC is dramatically deadlier than the one that swept the globe in 2022.
About 6% of people who get this type of mpox are dying from it —- compared to a 0.2% death rate for the 2022 strain. Most of the deaths in the DRC outbreak are among children.
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