Emerging Infectious Diseases in Chad and Southeast Africa: A Clinical Review of Outbreaks, Surveillance, and Regional Response
Chad and Southeast African nations are experiencing concurrent outbreaks of cholera, measles, mpox, malaria, and dengue, with cholera alone causing over 3,700 deaths across the continent in 2025. This comprehensive review examines the epidemiological data from WHO and Africa CDC, clinical presentations, diagnostic challenges, and the regional collaboration framework established to strengthen health systems and contain these emerging threats.
1. Introduction: A Converging Crisis
The African continent is facing an unprecedented convergence of infectious disease outbreaks that threaten regional health security. In Chad and Southeast African nations—including South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe—a syndemic of cholera, measles, mpox, malaria, and dengue has emerged as a growing public health concern requiring urgent clinical attention. The World Health Organization (WHO) responded to more than 119 public health emergencies across the Africa Region in November 2025 alone, comprising 97 infectious disease outbreaks and 22 humanitarian crises .
This clinical review synthesizes current epidemiological data from WHO, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and other authoritative sources to provide healthcare professionals with a comprehensive understanding of these concurrent outbreaks, their diagnostic challenges, and the evolving regional response framework.
2. Cholera: The Dominant Threat 2.1 Continental Burden Cholera remains the most significant outbreak driver…
Reviewed by the LibraryMedicine.com Clinical Editorial Board. Our authors are practicing physicians and medical educators dedicated to delivering evidence-based, up-to-date clinical guides.
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