Meningitis Deaths Fell About 30% in Africa’s Belt in 2025, While Plague Stays Concentrated
Reported meningitis deaths in Africa's meningitis belt fell about 30% in 2025, while most human plague cases came from Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to WHO's latest data on meningitis and plague. The figures appeared on 29 September 2026 in the agency's Weekly Epidemiological Record, alongside its annual cholera report.
The meningitis and plague reviews sit beside the cholera report and share one difficulty with it: the counts depend on which countries report. WHO says so itself, cautioning that the drop in meningitis cases cannot be read as an equal fall in disease burden.
Meningitis in Africa's belt: deaths down, cases hard to compare
In 2025, 24 of the 26 countries in WHO's enhanced surveillance network sent data, reporting 21,526 suspecte...