On 16 April 2025, Malawi confirmed its first case of Mpox clade 1b and the Ministry of Health officially declared Mpox an outbreak on 17 April 2025. The first detected case involved a 30-year-old male who presented with symptoms consistent with Mpox in Lilongwe, notably, with no recent travel out of the country, suggesting possible local transmission. Within a week of the first case, three more cases were confirmed from Lilongwe and Mangochi. Malawi had six confirmed cases as of 01 May 2025.
In response, to the Mpox outbreak, Lilongwe district activated its Incident Management System and deployed Rapid Response Teams to conduct contact tracing, where 54 contacts were identified. An isolation unit was established at Kamuzu Central Hospital with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners
Considering the risk and transmission modes of Mpox, the declaration of an outbreak required immediate response to contain the disease. The Mpox Incident Management Team (IMT) recommended widespread dissemination of Mpox awareness and prevention messages as a key priority. In response, the WHO Malawi Country Office provided both financial and technical support for awareness and prevention activities, targeting communities where the confirmed cases had originated.
“Since the WHO Director-General declared Mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), WHO Malawi has been supporting Mpox preparedness activities in the country. When governments declare disease outbreaks as Malawi has done with Mpox, WHO must immediately come in and provide the needed support both technically and financially. Currently we are providing support to MOH across all the emergency response pillars. Creation of awareness and prevention of Mpox needed urgent support. This is so because effective awareness and prevention interventions help us ensure that people understand the disease, its symptoms, and how it spreads, reducing misinformation and panic, hence our commitment to support Lilongwe”.
WHO supported Lilongwe DHO to conduct orientation sessions for community health workers on focused messaging for mpox, community engagement sessions for local leaders and mobile van announcements as
One of the leaders Yohane Thomu, from Kawale confesses that before the meeting with Lilongwe District Hospital, communities were just hearing about the Mpox disease through the radio and other informal sources like WhatsApp and had nowhere to find more information about mpox.
"As a leader, I have had the privilege of understanding how the disease spreads, how to prevent, and our roles in the communities. I have committed myself to disseminate key messages about the disease to our c
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