"Cases continue to climb sharply in Sierra Leone, and the head of the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) said the surge is a major focus of the outbreak response, partly to prevent the virus from spreading to other West African countries.

At Africa CDC’s weekly update today, Director-General Jean Kaseya, MD, MPH, said 611 cases were reported in the most recent week, up from 483 the previous week. The country’s hot spots are six districts in West Area Urban and West Area Rural states, which include Freetown, the country’s capital. Of confirmed cases, males account for 68% in the outbreak driven by clade 2b, which is the strain circulating globally."

Additional context from Wikipedia: “Mpox is endemic in Central and Western Africa, where several species of mammals are suspected to act as a natural reservoir of the virus.[1] The first human cases were diagnosed in 1970 in Basankusu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.[12] Since then, the frequency and severity of outbreaks have significantly increased, possibly as a result of waning immunity since the cessation of routine smallpox vaccination.[12] A global outbreak of clade II in 2022–2023 marked the first incidence of widespread community transmission outside of Africa. In July 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). The WHO reverted this status in May 2023,[13] as the outbreak came under control, citing a combination of vaccination and public health information as successful control measures.[14]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpox