South Africa reports 1st mpox cases of 2025, Mpox patients escape treatment center in South Kivu, DRC
South Africa
South Africa health authorities have reported the first three mpox, or monkeypox cases of 2025 from Ekurhuleni.
The first case was confirmed on February 21 in a 30-year-old male patient residing in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng Province with a recent travel history to Kampala, Uganda. The patient was diagnosed with Clade I mpox virus, which is currently circulating in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda and has been reported in travellers returning to many locations around the globe.
The other two cases, a 30-year-old male and a 27-year-old female, also from Ekurhuleni, were detected through contact tracing and monitoring conducted by outbreak response teams.
All three cases are now recovering and self-isolating at home. This increases the total cumulative number of positive cases from 25 to 28 cases, including three deaths since the outbreak in May last year.
Prior to these cases, the last case reported in South Africa was in September 2024.
Officials say there is no need for panic; however, the public is urged to remain cautious of how mpox spreads and to seek help when faced with symptoms of mpox. The symptoms include a rash which may last for 2 – 4 weeks, fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen glands. Mpox is typically a mild and self-limiting disease with a low case fatality rate. The risk of wider transmission remains low in South Africa, but anyone can contract mpox regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation and race.
The Department urges all people experiencing any of the symptoms, with or without travel history to countries and regions experiencing mpox outbreaks, or who had close contact with known mpox patients to seek medical care. Although, the country has limited stock of mpox specific vaccine for treatment of patients who experience severe health complications as a result of this disease.
Safer sex and personal hygiene practices are among the most effective preventative methods to control further spread of the disease. People are therefore reminded to always wash hands with soap and water, or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, especially before eating or after using the toilet.
In 2025 in Africa, about 20,000 total mpox cases, including 5,000 confirmed cases, and 194 deaths have been reported from 15 African countries. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda account for the bulk of confirmed cases on the continent.
South Kivu
Residents of South Kivu are expressing concern following the escape of a dozen Mpox patients from the Miti-Murehesa treatment centre. They fled the clashes between the FARDC and the M23.
According to the report of the Ministry of Health, there are 17 Mpox patients, including 10 confirmed positive and 7 awaiting results interned in the Miti-Murhesa health zone.
Contacted on this subject, Professor Manwa Baudoin, a specialist in medical biology, said that these people who have not been declared cured of Mpox will create a hotbed of activation of the disease, thus creating a high risk of contamination.
He calls on all sections of the population to mobilize and apply the classically known barrier measures, including avoiding any contact with a sick or dead animal, its meat or its blood as well as contact with a person infected with MPOX.
However, Birindwa Ariship, medical director of the Mpox treatment center of the UOB university clinics in the city of Bukavu, the security situation is hampering the supply of medical supplies, a huge need for the treatment of pathologies.
The security situation in South Kivu province has deteriorated since February 14, 2025, with the entry of M23/AFC rebels. The Kamituga health zone is the epicenter of the pathology in the region.