🇲🇺 Mauritius logs its first local Mpox case of the year

Mauritius logs its first local Mpox case of the year

A 64-year-old Swiss man who has lived in the north of the island for about a year has tested positive for Mpox, and health officials say he caught it here. That detail matters. Of the three Mpox cases recorded in Mauritius in 2026, the other two arrived from abroad. This one did not.

The man is in isolation at the northern hospital, and contact tracing started the moment results came back. Mpox, once called monkeypox, spreads mostly through close skin-to-skin contact. Fever, muscle aches, swollen glands, then a rash that crusts over.

Before confirmation, the patient bounced through the system as a suspected case, examined by a doctor, referred to a dermatologist, swabs sent to the Candos lab. Acting health services director Fazil Khodaboccus is fronting the response. The question now is how many people the man met before anyone knew.

Imported cases you can stop at the airport; a local one means the virus already had a head start.

Pregnant patient's death at 21 goes to the Medical Council

A 21-year-old woman, 23 weeks pregnant, died at SSRN Hospital, and Health Minister Bachoo has now referred the case to the Medical Council. An independent inquiry tied the death to a placental abruption, regular cannabis use, and no antenatal care.

She first came to emergency at 11:48 pm on May 19 with abdominal pain, refused admission, and signed herself out against medical advice. She was back three hours later, bleeding, with no foetal heartbeat. No gynaecologist was physically on site, a gap Bachoo blamed on a recent labour tribunal ruling.

Rs 94.5 million of cannabis caught off a Gatwick flight

Officers pulled two passengers aside the moment they stepped off a London-Gatwick flight at SSR airport on Thursday. Scanners flagged their four suitcases. Inside: 62.5 kilos of cannabis worth Rs 94.5 million.

Both were arrested on the spot. Under questioning they named a third man from the same flight who had already cleared the airport, and a joint drug-squad and traffic operation tracked him down soon after. Investigators are now chasing any accomplices.

Health union says the wards are running short of hands

The Government Services Employees Association is sounding the alarm again over staffing shortages across public health services, and it wants urgent recruitment. It is a familiar warning that keeps landing on the same overstretched wards.

Human remains turn up on a Saint-Louis plot

A grim find was made on a patch of land at Pont-Rouge, behind the Saint-Louis metro station, on Wednesday afternoon. Police have opened an investigation to identify the remains and work out how they got there.

Shorts

Second arrest in the widows fraud case – A Phoenix man faces a money-laundering charge as the FCC widens its scam probe.

Textile workers to march as firms go under – The FTU will protest on June 8 over jobs at World Knits, Universal Fabrics and Evaco.

2,200 heroin doses seized at Abercrombie – A police intelligence unit arrested one suspect in the northern division bust.

Four sabres found in a Rose-Hill car – A routine traffic check turned up the blades, and two suspects are in detention.

Respiratory cases push past 4,000 a week – Weekly infections hit 4,148, and authorities are urging high-risk people to get vaccinated.

7.6%

the unemployment rate Mauritian women still face, even as the overall jobless rate slipped to 5.7% in 2025.

5 countries

just won non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council, with Zimbabwe taking the African slot unopposed.

$25 million

is what a Dallas artist wants from FIFA after his giant whale mural was torn down to promote the World Cup.

Mogadishu wakes to gunfire before the protests begin

Residents of Somalia's capital describe a sleepless night as heavy gunfire echoed across the city and smoke rose over the rooftops. Armed forces fanned out into the streets.

The clashes pit rival political factions against each other ahead of planned demonstrations, with earlier fighting reported near a former PM's house.

Benin's new leader mends fences with the juntas

Benin's president visited Niger and Burkina Faso, a thaw with the military-led neighbours after months of friction.

Nine students remanded over a deadly Kenya school fire

A Naivasha court ordered nine students held at a children's home while detectives finish probing the dormitory blaze.

North Korea opens a plant to make more bomb fuel

Kim Jong Un has unveiled a new nuclear materials facility and vowed to expand the country's arsenal at what he called an exponential rate. It is the clearest signal yet that Pyongyang intends to keep building rather than bargain.

More production capacity means more weapons-grade material on hand, and a much harder problem for anyone still hoping to freeze the programme where it stands today.

US House votes to pull troops out of the Iran war

The House passed a war powers resolution directing the president to withdraw forces or seek congressional approval, a direct rebuke over the Iran campaign.

Ohio State pays $100 million over a campus doctor's abuse

The university reached a settlement with former student athletes abused by team doctor Richard Strauss decades ago.

Uganda's viral orphans are off to dance with Shakira

Remember the barefoot kids whose street routines racked up millions of views? Uganda's Ghetto Kids troupe is headed to the World Cup half-time show in the US, sharing a stage with Shakira.

From a backyard in Kampala to the biggest sporting stage on earth. They say they cannot wait to show the world what they have got.

🙏 Merci, à demain! 👋

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