In June 2024 (latest complete monthly disease surveillance data available), a total of 934 new laboratory confirmed cases of mpox and four deaths were reported to WHO from 26 countries, illustrating continuing transmission of mpox across the world.
The most affected WHO regions, ordered 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 did not report cases in June 2024.
• As reporting from countries to WHO has been declining, the current reported global data most likely underestimate the actual number of mpox cases.
• Within the African Region, the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported most (96%) of the confirmed mpox cases in the reporting month. With limited access to testing in rural areas, 24% of clinically compatible (reported as suspected) cases in the country have been tested in 2024, with a positivity of around 65% at the national level. The confirmed case counts are, therefore, underestimates of the true burden.
• This issue also features an update on the geographic expansion of mpox in the WHO African Region from July – August 2024, not yet captured in global surveillance data by 30 June 2024. Four new countries in Eastern Africa (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda) reported their first mpox cases. All cases are linked to the expanding outbreak in East and Central Africa and all cases sequenced to date from these countries are clade I. Separately, Côte d’Ivoire is experiencing an outbreak of mpox linked to clade II MPXV and South Africa has reported two more confirmed cases.
