The World Health Organisation has said Nigeria is leading the pack of African countries with mpox infections and deaths.
The WHO disclosed this in its multi-country outbreak of mpox situation report released on Friday.
Mpox is a zoonosis, a disease that is transmitted from animals to humans, with cases often found close to tropical rainforest where there are animals that carry the virus.
Evidence of mpox virus infection has been found in animals including squirrels, Gambian pouched rats, dormice, different species of monkey, and others.
The WHO had on November 28, 2022, renamed monkeypox as 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 have been reported to WHO from 110 countries in all six WHO regions.
In the region of the Americas, the confirmed cases are 56,694 with 53 deaths…
