The hands of a patient with a skin rash caused by the ampox virus are photographed at the Vijana Hospital treatment center in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, on August 30, 2024. Photo Credit: Reuters
Dozens of feverish patients lie on thin mattresses on the floor of a makeshift Mpox isolation ward in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, while hospital staff struggle with a shortage of medicines and a lack of space to house patients.
Congo is the epicentre of the ampox outbreak World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency Last month.
Vaccines to fight the new variant of the virus are set to arrive in a matter of days, while Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi has given the go-ahead US$10 million distributed for the first time to fight the outbreak,
But at a hospital complex in the town of Kavumu, where 900 symptomatic patients have been admitted in the past three months, health workers are desperate for help.
“We run out of medicine every day,” said head doctor Musole Mulamba Muwa. “There are so many challenges that we have to deal with using our own local resources.” He said donations from international organizations are dwindling fast.
Last week the ampox ward had 135 patients, including both children and adults, crammed into three large plastic tents built on damp ground with no floor covering.
Relatives who usually provide the bulk of the food at underfunded public facilities such as Kavumu Hospital were banned from visiting the Mpox ward to avoid contamination. “We have nothing to eat,” said Njigire Lukangira, a 32-year-old mother of a child admitted to the hospital.
“When we ask for something to bring down our children’s temperature, they don’t give us anything,” he said, putting honey into his daughter’s mouth.
Chris Kasita, head of Congo’s Mpox response team, acknowledged there were medicine shortages in parts of the vast central African country and said sending donations, including 115 tonnes of medicine from the World Bank, was a priority.
traditional treatment
Ampox causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled sores and, although it is usually mild, it can be life-threatening. Children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of complications.
Like other mothers in the Kavumu ampox ward, Lukangira began resorting to traditional remedies to ease her child’s pain. She would dip her fingers in potassium bicarbonate or salted lemon juice and burst her children’s blisters. Adult patients would do the same to themselves.
Most of the cases have come from the city and nearby villages. Two more temporary ampox wards have been set up in the area.
Local health ministry representative Dr Serge Munyau Sikuru called on the government to continue its efforts for vaccines.
Kasita said high-risk contacts and nine priority sectors have already been identified for the first vaccination phase.
According to the health ministry, there were 19,710 suspected cases of ampox in Congo from the beginning of the year to August 31. Of these, 5,041 were confirmed and 655 died.