The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that all known strains of the mpox virus remain in circulation, raising concerns about sustained community transmission if outbreaks are not quickly contained. At the same time, the newly identified clade Ib has now spread beyond Africa.
According to WHO’s September report, 3,135 confirmed mpox cases and 12 deaths were recorded across 42 countries, representing a case fatality rate of 0.4%. More than 80% of cases were reported in the African region.
Over the past six weeks, 17 African countries have seen ongoing transmission, with the highest numbers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Kenya, and Ghana. The report noted rising cases in Kenya and Liberia, while numbers declined in the Congo.
The report also highlighted that mpox cases increased in Europe and South-East Asia during September, while the African, Eastern Mediterranean, Americas, and Western Pacific regions continued to see a decline.
The newly detected clade Ib mpox virus has been reported for the first time in Malaysia, Namibia, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, with additional imported cases among travellers in Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Qatar, and Spain.
Outside Central and East Africa, local transmission of clade Ib mpox has been confirmed in Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the U.S. At least five recent cases were among men with same-sex partners, marking the first evidence of this strain circulating within that group.
WHO currently assesses the public health risk as moderate for men with same-sex partners and low for the general population outside historically endemic areas.
“When mpox outbreaks are not rapidly contained and human-to-human transmission is not interrupted, there is a risk of sustained community transmission,” the agency warned.
As the Ukraine war is highlighted by some leaders during the United Nations' 81st General Assembly meetin...
The 81st UN General Assembly returns for its third day in New York on Thursday, with world leaders delivering high-level speeches and holding diplo...
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained low on Thursday, as Iran reiterated that it will neither enter into new negotiations with th...
As the Ukraine war is highlighted by some leaders during the United Nations' 81st General Assembly meeting in New York, Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Thursday with ballistic missiles, killing two people and injuring six, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York on Wednesday, as Washington pushes for an end to the war in Ukraine and Kyiv and Moscow continue to strike energy infrastructure.
U.S. President Donald Trump is addressing the UN General Assembly as world leaders gather in New York for the 81st session. Conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, global security and diplomacy set to dominate the event.
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained low on Thursday, as Iran reiterated that it will neither enter into new negotiations with the United States nor re-open the Strait as long as its conditions are not met, despite recent indirect talks in New York mediated by Qatar.
U.S. President Donald Trump said his team held a three-hour meeting with an Iranian delegation in New York that he described as “very good” and “productive”, with another round of talks scheduled soon.
As the Ukraine war is highlighted by some leaders during the United Nations' 81st General Assembly meeting in New York, Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Thursday with ballistic missiles, killing two people and injuring six, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
The 81st UN General Assembly returns for its third day in New York on Thursday, with world leaders delivering high-level speeches and holding diplomatic meetings. Restoring trust, managing global transformation, peace and security, and international cooperation remain at the centre of discussions.
Australia says an OpenAI AI agent gained unauthorised access to a government Medicare statistics portal in June, in what officials say could be an unprecedented case of an AI system breaching a government network.
Pakistan says it carried out air strikes on 10 locations in Afghanistan on Thursday, targeting sites it said were used to store and launch drones, as tensions between the two neighbouring countries continued to escalate.
Here’s your AnewZ Daily Brief for 24 September 2026, with five key developments from the second day of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
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