{"id":48502,"date":"2026-10-20T08:26:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T06:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=48502"},"modified":"2026-10-20T08:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T06:26:42","slug":"health-experts-urge-calm-as-mpox-cases-rise-in-sa","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/health-experts-urge-calm-as-mpox-cases-rise-in-sa\/","title":{"rendered":"Health experts urge calm as Mpox cases rise in SA"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Health experts in South Africa (SA) have urged the public to remain calm amid an increase in Mpox cases, saying the number of infections remains relatively low.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>There have been 26 laboratory confirmed cases since January this year.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Western Cape Province has recorded the highest number, with 18 cases, followed by Gauteng Province with three and the Eastern Cape Province with two.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Other affected Provinces include the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Helen Rees, the Executive Director of Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute\u00a0and co-Chairperson of the National Department of Health Mpox Incident Management Team in SA, expressed concern that Mpox is beginning to circulate in certain communities.<\/p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She noted that in SA, the rise in cases is being driven by sexual contact, particularly among men who have sex with men.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She acknowledged that the country is monitoring the situation closely.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":48343,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-48502","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"South Africa's increase in Mpox cases ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48504,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48502\/revisions\/48504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=48502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}