Rift Valley fever- Mauritania and Senegal

Rift Valley fever- Mauritania and Senegal was recorded by Global Incident Tracker on Wednesday, 5 November 2025 at 15:38 UTC. The event is classified as a epidemic incident with a severity rating of Severe, and was detected through the World Health Organization (WHO).

Between 20 September and 30 October 2025, a total of 404 confirmed human cases of Rift Valley fever (RVF), including 42 deaths, were reported by national health authorities in two West African countries: Mauritania and Senegal. RVF is a zoonotic disease, which mainly affects animals, but can also infect humans. The majority of human infections result from contact with the blood or organs of infected animals, but human infections have also resulted from the bites of infected mosquitoes. To date, no human-to-human transmission of RVF has been documented. While RVF often leads to severe illness in animals, its impact in humans varies, ranging from mild flu-like symptoms to severe hemorrhagic fever that can be fatal. RVF is endemic in both countries, where recurrent outbreaks have been previously reported in both livestock and humans. The risk of further spread remains high, especially wi

Where this happened

The incident is located in Mauritania (Africa), whose capital is Nouakchott. Historically, Mauritania is most affected by droughts and sand storms. You can follow every incident recorded in this country, updated live, on the Mauritania incident tracker.

Approximate coordinates of the reported event are 21.000°, -10.900°. The marker on the map above shows this position; for news-derived reports the location reflects the place named in media coverage and may represent a district or city rather than an exact site.

Understanding epidemic events

Disease outbreaks including cholera, dengue, measles, Ebola and influenza. Outbreak trajectories depend on transmission route, population immunity and the speed of detection. Early case-finding, clean water and vaccination coverage change outcomes far more than late-stage restrictions.

How severity is rated

Global Incident Tracker rates every event on a four-step scale — Minor, Moderate, Severe and Extreme — derived from the source signal: earthquake magnitude, official GDACS alert colour, or the volume of independent media reporting for news-derived incidents. This event is currently rated Severe. Ratings can change as more information becomes available, and a rating is a monitoring signal rather than an official government assessment.

Safety guidance for epidemic situations

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Data and verification

This record was generated automatically from the World Health Organization (WHO) and de-duplicated against our archive. Early reports for any incident can be revised: locations get refined, magnitudes are recalculated and impact figures change as assessments arrive. We deliberately do not publish casualty numbers unless an official source states them. The original source report is linked at the top of this page.

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Timeline and sources

1. 9 Aug 2026, 19:57 UTC · received · event time 5 Nov 2025, 15:38 UTC
   First report Humanitarian agency report

   First recorded from World Health Organization.

   World Health Organization ↗

Times are when this site received each report, in UTC; the event time is shown where the source gave one. Copies of one syndicated story count as one report.

Conditions at the time