Claim: Ghana records its first death from Mpox since June 2022.
Source: Social media & News website
Verdict: False
Researched by Gifty Tracy Aminu
A post by an X user (@SikaOfficial) claims the death of one person from Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) according to the Ghana Health Service’s update on July 27, 2025, is the first since Ghana recorded an outbreak in June 2022.
“Ghana has reported its first death from Mpox since the disease was initially detected in the country in June 2022, according to a statement from the Ghana Health Service,” the post shared on July 28, 2025, said.
The claim was further amplified on Facebook and some news websites, including GhanaWeb and ABC News.
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This fact-check report seeks to verify the claim.
Fact-check
To verify this claim, GhanaFact spoke to GHS’ Director of Public Health, Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, who debunked the claim and said, “There were 120 cases in 2022 with 4 deaths. This year, 2025, has recorded one death.”
GhanaFact in a September 2022 publication citing the Ghana Health Service and the World Health Organisation (WHO), confirmed that the country recorded 4 deaths in 2022 when Mpox was known as monkeypox.
A presentation by Dr. Henry Nagai, who was the Chief Party at USAID and JSI, showed that the deaths were recorded in the Greater Accra, the Upper East and the Central Regions.
The WHO’s weekly bulletin on outbreaks and other emergencies on October 2, 2022, confirmed that Ghana had recorded some deaths.
“On 8 June 2022, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service confirmed that 5 cases of monkeypox have been detected in the country. From 24 May-6 September 2022, there have been 535 suspected cases, including 84 confirmed and four deaths reported from 16 administrative regions. Most of the positive cases were reported from the Greater Accra region,” the bulletin said.
Verdict
Therefore, the claim suggesting the recent death from Mpox as the first since June 2022 is false.
GhanaFact reached out to @SikaOfficial on X to draw his attention to potential misinformation contained in his post but he has yet to respond to us.
