2023-11-27 01:02:19
The World Health Organization (WHO) is very concerned regarding the outbreak of monkeypox cases in the DRC. The country has already recorded 581 deaths out of nearly 13,000 cases. A high mortality rate even though the WHO raised the alert for this disease a few months ago. If the specialized UN agency justifies this outbreak by structural ills, the Congolese health authorities cite financial problems.
Published on: 11/27/2023 – 02:02
2 mn
With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Pascal Mulegwa
The epidemic is affecting 21 of the 26 Congolese provinces, but the peak in recent weeks has been recorded in the provinces of Équateur, Sankuru, Maï-Ndombe and in the capital Kinshasa. For the WHO, this rapid spread is due in particular to the lack of health infrastructure. But according to the response team, it is mainly financial resources that pose a problem.
The government is struggling to release the 4 million USD necessary for an emergency plan in these four provinces, where the virus is circulating very quickly. Cris Kasita is responsible for the response. “ This plan was never implemented and we never responded in Kinshasa. All we do is routine data that we have. But effective, active surveillance to carry out this fight once morest M-Pox [Monkey Pox, la variole du singe, Ndlr], quite honestly, hasn’t started yet. This is how we skate. We are approaching the festivities, if we do not know how to act upstream, it will be difficult for Kinshasa to contain this epidemic. »
Faced with the highest number of annual cases ever reported, with new contaminations in geographical areas which had not been affected such as the capital and the provinces of Lualaba and South Kivu, the WHO estimates that the risk of spread to neighboring countries and around the world is “ high ».
The investigation went back to March, with the trip of a Belgian tourist to the DRC, who allegedly had several sexual partners.
A mode of contamination sometimes poorly understood in the DRC, due to lack of awareness. The virus is also transmitted from human to human through contact with skin lesions, or from an infected animal. However, knowledge regarding the virus remains limited.
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