Monkeypox: Africa Records 524 Infections, 12 Deaths, with Nigeria Leading the Pack

Nigeria presently tops the list of African nations in terms of monkeypox infections and fatalities, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

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NewsReport that during a virtual press conference on meningitis, Matshidiso Moeti, the regional director for WHO in Africa, disclosed this information.

The regional director reports that as of September 8, there had been 12 fatalities and 524 confirmed cases across 11 African nations.

Moeti said Nigeria topped the list of the cases recorded, and is followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ghana.

According to her, Nigeria recorded six of the 12 deaths, while Ghana reported four and two recorded in the Central African Republic.

Checks on the CDC monkeypox global map shows that as of September 9, Nigeria has 220 infections, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo with 195 cases and Ghana with 76 cases, while the global infections now stand at 57,527.

“Although no single monkeypox vaccine has been administered to any high-risk group in any of the African countries reporting cases, WHO has provided 39,000 test kits to countries, enabling improved testing rates,” Moeti noted.

Speaking on Africa’s progress with Meningitis Group A, Moeti admitted that not a single case has been reported on the continent in the past five years but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed vaccination campaigns targeting more than 50 million African children.

She also noted that the major outbreaks caused by meningitis Group C have been recorded in seven of the African Sub-Saharan meningitis belt countries in the past nine years.

She said; “The most recent was a four-month outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which claimed more than 200 lives just last year.

“The pandemic severely disrupted meningitis prevention and control services slashed by half in 2020, when compared to 2019, followed by only a slight improvement last year.”