Justine Munjiku couldn’t remember the name of the disease she had been warned about, only that her baby Fidel had painful sores similar to those suffered by other children in a camp for displaced people near the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Goma.
The Republic of Congo is the epicentre of a monkeypox outbreak that the World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency last week. Communities like Mungekou’s are among those most at risk and in need of support.
Justine and other mothers in the camp decided to treat their children with a traditional way of dealing with fever and rash: bathing them in boiling salted water and rubbing the soft leaves of the kitamatama plant on their skin. “This is a skin disease, I don’t know where it comes from,” said the 24-year-old, trying to soothe her crying son, who still had crusty sores on his wrists and feet. “We were told it comes from eating bush meat, but neither I nor my child have eaten bush meat.”
As the international community struggles to provide enough vaccines, Mungiko’s experience highlights the scale of work needed to ensure the most vulnerable have the knowledge and resources to protect themselves from a viral infection that is usually mild but can kill.
“Communicating to people about what they should do is crucial,” said Ebere Okereke, an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Global Health Programme. “We need to get the right information to people at risk immediately.”
About 27,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, mostly among children, have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since the current outbreak began in January 2023, and the virus has also spread to neighbouring countries.
In Kanyaruchenya camp, residents gathered in an open area on Monday, between rows of tents, to listen to a health worker from the humanitarian organization Medair explain how to avoid infection. They received a colorful leaflet with pictures explaining the dangers of close contact with infected animals or people.
The challenge in Congo and other African countries is compounded by a lack of funding for research, said Helen Rees, co-chair of the smallpox incident management team in South Africa. “We still don’t have a good understanding of smallpox, its outbreak, how it spreads and how many asymptomatic cases there are for every symptomatic case,” she said.
Those on the ground who are at risk are also keen to know more. Bizimungu Habimana, 46, a camp resident, looked closely at the post after Meder’s presentation. “We thought there was no medicine or cure for this disease. I am very happy to hear that it is curable,” he said.