The World Health Organization has said that Nigeria is leading the group of African countries with mpox infections and deaths.
The WHO revealed this in its situation report on the multi-country mpox outbreak released on Friday.
Mpox is a zoonosis, a disease that is transmitted from animals to humans, with cases often found near rainforests where there are animals carrying the virus.
Evidence of MPOX virus infection has been found in animals, such as squirrels, Gambian rats, dormice, different species of monkeys, and others.
On November 28, 2022, the WHO changed the name of monkeypox to mpox to reduce the stigma around the virus.
The WHO epidemiological update showed that from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023, a total of 83,943 laboratory-confirmed cases of mpox and 75 deaths from 110 countries in the six regions of WHO were reported to WHO. The OMS.
In the region of the Americas, confirmed cases are 56,694 with 53 deaths; the European region registered 25,705 cases with five deaths; the African region registered 1,200 cases and 15 deaths; the Western Pacific region has 229 cases without death; the Eastern Mediterranean region recorded 80 cases and one death; and the Southeast Asia region has 35 confirmed cases and one death.
A breakdown of confirmed cases in the African region revealed that Nigeria tops the list of countries with mpox infections with 756; followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 277; Ghana with 116; Cameroon with 18.
Others are the Central African Republic with 13; Liberia with six; Congo and South Africa registered five cases each; Benin registered three cases; and Mozambique registered one case.
The report also showed that only Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Mozambique reported seven, four, three and one death respectively.
