MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. More that 14,000 mpox cases have been confirmed globally since the beginning of 2026, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Sierra Leone accounting for most of them, Russia’s sanitary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said.

"In 2026 alone, more than 14,000 cases have been registers, with most of them being reported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Sierra Leone," it said.

Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a rare viral disease endemic to remote regions near tropical forests in Central and Western Africa. The first case of an animal transmitting the disease to humans was recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970. According to the WHO, this virus is usually transmitted to humans by wild animals, such as rodents and primates, while its secondary spread among humans is limited. Usually the lethality coefficient during mpox outbreaks ranges from 1% to 10% with the majority of fatalities affecting younger age groups.

Mpox is most often accompanied by a skin rash or mucosal lesions, which can last from two to four weeks. Additional symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes.