Monkeypox Patients At The Democratic Republic Of Congo Hospital Lack Of Medicine And Food

Handling monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Twitter/@WHO)

JAKARTA - Dozens of fevery patients lay on thin mattresses on the floor of an emergency mpox isolation ward in the Democratic Republic of eastern Congo, while hospitalized workers are struggling with drug shortages and lack of room to accommodate patients.

Congo is the epicenter of thempox outbreak that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global public health emergency last month.

The vaccine will arrive in a few days to fight the new strain of the virus. Meanwhile, President Felix Tshisekedi has allowed an initial disbursement of USD 10 million to counter the outbreak.

However, in the hospital complex in Kawumu City, where 900 symptomatic patients have been treated for the past three months, health workers are in dire need of support.

"We run out of medicine every day," said chief doctor Musole Mulamba Muva.

"There are many challenges that we have to overcome in local ways," he said, noting that donations from international organizations were shrinking rapidly.

Last week, there were 135 patients in the campux ward. Children and adults are crammed into three large plastic tents set up in damped soil without floor coverings.

Families who usually provide most food in public facilities that lack funds such as Kanumu hospitals are prohibited from visiting thempox ward to avoid contamination.

"We have nothing to eat," said Nzigire Lukangira, a 32-year-old mother of a toddler being hospitalized.

"When we asked for something to lower the temperature of our children, they didn't give us anything," he said, while persuading his daughter to put honey in the mouth.

Meanwhile, the head of the Congo Crypta response team Cris Kasita, acknowledged that part of the large central African country lacked medicine, with donation shipments, including 115 tonnes of medicines from the World Bank, were a priority.

Like other mothers in the Kavumu campux ward, Lukangira began to stroke them with traditional medicine to relieve their baby's pain. They dip their fingers into bicarbonate potassium or salted lemon juice and break the bones of their children. Adult patients do the same to themselves.

Most of the cases came from the city itself and its surrounding villages. Two other emergencympox wards have been established in the area.

Separately, the representative of the local health ministry, doctor Serge Munyau Cikuru, asked the government to continue to encourage vaccination.

Kajita said high-risk contacts and nine priority areas had been identified for the first vaccination phase.

There were 19,710 suspected cases of Mpox reported since the beginning of the year in Congo until August 31, according to the health ministry. Of these, 5,041 confirmed cases and 655 cases died.