The Democratic Republic of Congo has announced the end of a two-year Monkey Pox disease that infected thousands and claimed more than 2,200 lives, according to health officials.
Health Minister Roger Kamba said on Thursday that the outbreak, the largest in Africa in recent years, is no longer a national emergency after months without new confirmed infections.
“After careful assessment, the outbreak has been brought under control,” Kamba told reporters in Kinshasa.
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Data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention show that Congo recorded more than 161,000 suspected cases during the outbreak, with around 37,000 confirmed through laboratory testing. At least 2,286 suspected deaths were reported, though only 127 were lab-confirmed.
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, was first identified in 1958 among laboratory monkeys. Before 2022, most human infections occurred in Central and West Africa through contact with infected animals.
In 2022, researchers confirmed that the virus could also spread through sexual contact, triggering outbreaks across more than 70 countries that had never reported mpox before.
