Zimbabwe Reports First Two Cases of Mpox With Capital City Also Affected

By Ray Ndlovu

October 13, 2024 at 1:37PM EDT

A man shows a health worker the mpox lesions on a child at the Munigi mpox treatment center in Nyiragongo territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. As disease detectives rush to central Africa to quell a mushrooming mpox contagion, theyre finding a complex mosaic of infection patterns involving different viral strains and vastly different routes of infection. Photographer: Arlette Bashizi/Bloomberg (Arlette Bashizi/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe has reported its first two cases of mpox, including in the nation’s capital, Harare, and in Mberengwa, a district located in the mineral-rich Midlands province.

An 11-year-old boy who visited South Africa in August and returned to the country in early September and a 24-year-old man who traveled to Tanzania last month have been diagnosed with the infectious disease, the Health ministry said in a statement issued Sunday by the Presidency on X.

“Both cases are in isolation and are receiving appropriate care,” the health ministry said. “Both cases are stable and recovering.”

Zimbabwe’s first mpox cases follow neighboring Zambia, which reported its first diagnosis on Oct. 10. So far this year, more than 34,000 suspected cases of the disease have been reported across Africa, more than triple the number recorded at the same time in 2023. As many as 95% of the cases are in Congo and Burundi.