ETIDIOH - NEW

Overall global risk and confidence * Overall risk :  Global  - Moderate     Confidence in available information : Global - Low   Overall risk statement As of mid-2025, the global public health risk from COVID-19 has changed from high to moderate , with declining deaths and hospitalizations since 2022 due to high population immunity , improved clinical management , and similar virulence .  Most SARSCoV-2 variants now belong to the JN.1 Omicron sublineages , which show immune escape but do not result in increased disease severity.  Nonetheless, surveillance gaps , reduced genomic sequencing and sharing of sequence information, and limited reporting, especially from low- and middle-income countries , undermine accurate risk assessment .  SARS-CoV-2 continues to circulate widely , as indicated by sentinel testing and wastewater surveillance , often co-circulating with influenza and RSV .  PostCOVID-19 condition is estimated to affect ...

  Overview Starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at the highest levels ever since the conflict began almost two years ago .  Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health , and humanitarian aid has cost many lives. Malnutrition is on a dangerous trajectory in the Gaza Strip , marked by a spike in deaths in July.  As of 5 September 2025, 361 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition , including 130 children .  As of 15 August 2025, Famine (IPC Phase 5)—with reasonable evidence—is confirmed in Gaza Governorate .  After 22 months of relentless conflict , over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death.  Another 1.07 million people (54%) are in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), and 396 000 people (20%) are in Crisis (IPC Phase 3). More broadly, since 7 October 2023 , as reported by Ministry of Health (MoH), the number of casualties include 63 746 fatalities and 161 245 inju...

  Situation at a glance On 1 September 2025, WHO received an alert from the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) regarding suspected cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Bulape Health Zone, Kasai Province, DRC .  The first known index case was a pregnant woman who presented at Bulape General Reference Hospital on 20 August 2025 with symptoms of high fever, bloody diarrhoea, haemorrhage and extreme weakness . She died on 25 August from multiple organ failure .  On 4 September 2025 , following confirmatory laboratory testing, the Ministry of Health declared an outbreak of EVD .  Ebola virus disease is a serious , often fatal illness in humans. The virus is transmitted to humans through close contact with the blood or secretions of infected wildlife and then spreads through human-to-human transmission .  As of 4 September 2025, 28 suspected cases, including 15 deaths (case fatality ratio (CFR): 54%), have been reported from three ar...

  Kinshasa – Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Kasai Province where 28 suspected cases and 15 deaths , including four health workers, have been reported as of 4 September 2025. The outbreak has affected Bulape and Mweka health zones in Kasai Province where health officials have been carrying out investigations after the cases and the deaths reported presented with symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and haemorrhage . Samples tested on 3 September at the country’s National Institute of Biomedical Research in the capital Kinshasa confirmed the cause of the outbreak as Ebola Zaire caused by Ebola virus disease.    A national Rapid Response Team joined by World Health Organization (WHO) experts in epidemiology, infection prevention and control, laboratory and case management has been deployed to Kasai Province to rapidly strengthen disease surveillance, treatment and infection prevention an...

  {Summary} Situation at a glance The global cholera situation continues to deteriorate , driven by conflict and poverty, posing a significant public health challenge across multiple WHO regions.  Between 1 January and 17 August 2025, a total of 409 222 cholera/Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) cases and 4738 deaths were reported globally, from 31 countries , with six of the 31 countries reporting case fatality rates above 1%, indicating serious gaps in case management and delayed access to care.  Cholera is resurging in a number of countries , including some that had not reported substantial case numbers in years, like Chad and the Republic of Congo , while other countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo , South Sudan , and Sudan , are experiencing outbreaks that are continuing from 2024, with significant geographic expansion. This complicates containment efforts and strains fragile health systems.  Conflict, mass displacement, disasters from natural hazard...

  Highlights     • All clades of monkeypox virus (MPXV) continue to circulate in several countries.  - When mpox outbreaks are not rapidly contained and human-to-human transmission is not interrupted, they continue to pose a risk of sustained community transmission .  - Since the last edition of this report , one country, Senegal , has reported mpox for the first time . Efforts to identify the clade are underway.  • Furthermore, Türkiye has reported cases of mpox due to clade Ib MPXV for the first time and the Democratic Republic of Congo has reported its first cases of mpox due to clade IIb MPXV.   • In July 2025, 47 countries in five (out of six) WHO regions reported a total of 3924 confirmed cases , including 30 deaths (case fatality ratio [CFR] 0.8% ).  - The South-East Asian and Western Pacific regions reported an increase in cases in July 2025, while the African Region, European Region and the Region of the Americas reported a decrease....

  More than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, marked by widespread starvation, destitution and preventable deaths, according to a new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis released today .  Famine conditions are projected to spread from Gaza Governorate to Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis Governorates in the coming weeks . The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have collectively and consistently highlighted the extreme urgency for an immediate and full-scale humanitarian response given the escalating hunger-related deaths, rapidly worsening levels of acute malnutrition and plummeting levels of food consumption, with hundreds of thousands of people going days without anything to eat. The agencies reinforced that famine must be stopped at all costs . An immediate ceasefire and end to the conflict is critical to allow uni...

  Situation at a glance On 4 August 2025, Israel notified WHO of a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (cVDPV1) outbreak .  Between February and July 2025, nine genetically linked virus isolates were found in environmental samples from seven sites, mainly in Jerusalem and the Central Region .  No human cases of paralytic polio have been reported.  Israel discontinued routine use of the bivalent oral polio vaccine in March 2025 but continues using inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) as part of the country’s routine immunization schedule.  WHO and partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are supporting national and subnational authorities.  WHO assesses the risk of international spread of this cVDPV1 outbreak in Israel as low, due to strong overall immunity, surveillance, and response systems.  However, the virus is circulating in under-vaccinated, vaccine-sceptic communities with ties to similar groups abroad, posing a potential risk fo...

Situation at a glance Between 17 May and 12 July 2025, the Information and Public Relations Department, Government of Kerala informed through a series of official press releases about four confirmed cases , including two deaths , due to Nipah virus (NiV) infection in two districts of Kerala State.  NiV infection is a bat-borne disease transmitted to humans through infected animals (such as bats or pigs), contaminated food or, less commonly, through close contact with infected individuals.  Since 1998 NiV outbreaks have been reported in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia , the Philippines , and Singapore .  In India, NiV infections have occurred multiple times since 2001 with outbreaks in West Bengal State in 2001 and 2007, and in Kerala State regularly since 2018.  Since 2018, Kerala has reported a total of nine NiV outbreaks . While the state has a strong healthcare system and improved infection control measures since 2023, it is advisable to maintain strong preparedness a...

  {Excerpt} Highlights -- All clades of monkeypox virus (MPXV) continue to circulate in several countries.  - When mpox outbreaks are not rapidly contained and human-to-human transmission is not interrupted, they continue to pose a risk of sustained community transmission .   -- Since the last edition of this report, one new country, the Gambia , has reported an mpox case for the first time.  - Genomic sequencing analysis has identified clade IIb MPXV.  -- Furthermore, Mozambique, has reported cases of mpox due to clade Ib MPXV for the first time.   -- Twenty-one countries in Africa have reported ongoing mpox transmission in the past six weeks.  - Clade IIb MPXV continues to be reported in West Africa, while Central African countries report both clade Ia and clade Ib MPXV, and East African countries report clade Ib MPXV.  -- The recent overall downward trend of confirmed cases across the continent is driven by the decline in cases in Sie...