Africa-Press – Mozambique. The number of mpox cases in Mozambique, in an outbreak affecting several African countries, has risen to five. They were detected in the northern province of Niassa, the provincial governor announced on Sunday.
“We already have five cases here,” Governor of Niassa province, Elina Massengele, told reporters during a visit to the district of Sanga. “We were at three, but it’s rising, and there are still many people being tested with suspected cases of this disease. […] We have to be careful with this disease because it is easily transmissible.”
The first three cases of MPox were confirmed by health authorities on July 11, who stated that: “The patients are clinically stable and are in home isolation, under monitoring by health authorities.”
The first three cases were detected in Lago district, which borders Tanzania, near Lake Niassa. They were identified as suspected M-pox cases on July 8, at the administrative posts of Metangula and Cobue of Lago district. Two days later, they were confirmed by the Public Health laboratory for M-pox.
A source at the Ministry of Health confirmed to Lusa that these are the first cases in Mozambique in the current outbreak, noting that, from January 1 to July 8, 2025, 77,458 cases of the disease were reported in 22 countries, resulting in 501 deaths.
In response to the cases detected in Niassa, as reported by Lusa on July 11, the Ministry of Health, through the National Directorate of Public Health and the National Institute of Health, “mobilized a technical team to support the affected province and district”. The team will monitor the treatment of patients, as well as “identify and quarantine close contacts” and “strengthen epidemiological surveillance and promote the dissemination of prevention messages to the population”.
The first cases in the previous outbreak of M-pox in Mozambique were recorded in 2022, in Maputo.
In the southern African region, which includes Mozambique, cases have previously been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia.
M-pox is a zoonotic viral disease, first identified in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In August 2024, the World Health Organization declared M-pox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern for the second time, due to the increase in the number of cases, deaths, and geographic spread, the Mozambican Ministry of Health recalls.
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