Children are bearing the brunt of the mpox outbreak, in the Democratic Republic of Congo according to a BBC report.
Mpox has been declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization.
However, DRC accounts for nearly all of this year’s recorded cases and over 450 deaths.
Mpox, which spreads quickly through close contact, has hit children particularly hard.
At a treatment center in Munigi, near the eastern city of Goma, about 75% of the cases are in children under the age of 10. Dr. Pierre-Olivier Ngadjole, who works with the charity Medair, explained, “Young people seem to be particularly badly affected by the mpox outbreak because of their less developed immune systems.”
The overcrowded conditions in nearby camps, where people have fled due to ongoing conflict, are also contributing to the spread. Dr. Ngadjole said, “Children are always playing together. They don’t really care about social distance. You can also see in the households, they even spend the night in the same bed. You can find three, four, five children. The transmission is present on a daily basis.”
The clinic in Munigi, which provides free treatment including antibiotics, paracetamol, and safe drinking water, has treated 310 mpox cases since June and sees between five and ten new cases daily. Thankfully, no one has died at this clinic, and Dr. Ngadjole believes this is because people are seeking help early. “I think it’s very important to provide free health services especially in this context… [It] means people don’t face any financial barrier, they come early to the health facility,” he said.
However, the situation is more dire 80km south-west of Munigi, at a hospital in Kavumu. Since June, this hospital has treated 800 patients, with eight children under the age of five dying from the disease.
Two-year-old Ansima Kanigo caught mpox from one of her four siblings. Her mother, Nzigire Kanigo, initially thought it was measles. “This is the first time I’ve seen it. When my child got sick, the other parents told me it might be measles, but we started treating measles and failed, so we decided to come here,” she said. “God bless the doctor who has brought the drugs… Three [children] are cured – they are at home. I only have two who I am admitted with now in this hospital. I thank God.”
Dr. Robert Musole, the medical director at the Kavumu hospital, stressed the seriousness of the outbreak. “The situation is really serious, and we’re so overwhelmed, because we have a small capacity, but we’re in great demand. The first challenge we face in this response is the accommodation of patients. The second challenge is the availability of medicines, which we don’t have.”
Health workers are visiting camps like Mudja near Mount Nyiragongo to educate people on how to spot symptoms and limit the spread of the disease. Josephine Sirangunza, who lives in the camp with her five children, said, “This disease has brought us a lot of fear that we shall all get sick.” She urged the government to provide basic equipment like soap to help stop the spread.
Bosco Sebuke, a father of 10, echoed these concerns. “We are full of fear because we are crowded in our shelters. We sleep in very poor conditions, we share bedding, so prevention is difficult and because of that, we are afraid,” he said.
The outbreak in eastern DR Congo is caused by a new strain of mpox called Clade 1b, which has spread to neighboring countries. Last week, the Congolese government announced that vaccines might soon arrive from the US and Japan, though the distribution will be limited. Dr. Ngadjole emphasized that vaccination is just one part of controlling the virus. “The [easiest] action to put in place is to improve the hygiene. When we improve the hygiene at household level, when we improve the hygiene at community level, it’s very easy to decrease the risk of transmission.”
Ms. Sirangunza concluded with a plea: “Tell our leaders to send us medicine, soap, and other protective measures so that we don’t get infected.”
