Infectious Diseases: Global Outbreaks in 2026

Malaria remained a severe global health emergency in 2024, with WHO estimating **282 million cases** and **610,000 deaths**, an increase of about **9 million cases** from 2023. WHO says the burden remains overwhelmingly concentrated in the **African Region**, which accounted for **94% of cases** and **95% of deaths** in 2024, with **75% of deaths in that region among children under 5**. The crisis is being sustained by a mix of **funding shortfalls, drug and insecticide resistance, climate-related disruption, and conflict-related access barriers**. WHO also reports that **47 countries and one territory** have now been certified malaria-free, showing progress in some settings, but the overall global trajectory in 2024 was still upward rather than improving.

Mpox remains an active public health crisis in Africa, with **clade I, especially subclade Ib**, driving sustained transmission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring countries. CDC says that as of April 2026, the DRC still has the majority of clade Ib cases, and transmission has continued in Central and Eastern Africa, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia. WHO’s late-2025 outbreak update also reported community transmission of clade Ib in several African countries, underscoring that the outbreak remains geographically broad and not fully contained. Recent evidence shows the epidemic continues to seed international spread. WHO reported in November 2025 that clade Ib had been detected without recent travel in multiple WHO regions, and by that point community transmission was considered established in several countries outside Africa. CDC notes that travel-associated clade I cases have largely been linked to subclade Ib and that these infections have generally been milder, but the DRC remains the epicenter of the ongoing African outbreak.