BRAZZAVILLE - Children in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are worst-affected by the current outbreak of mpox, which has been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The country accounts for nearly all of this year’s recorded cases and more than 450 deaths. “It began like a small, inflamed spot.
The mother squeezed it and watery discharge came out. Then another developed, and after a short period, they were all over the body,” says Alain Matabaro, describing how mpox developed in his six-year-old son Amani. He started recovering after four days of treatment at a clinic in Munigi, close to the major eastern Congolese city of Goma.
Some 75% of the cases being seen by medics there are under the age of 10, according to Dr Pierre-Olivier Ngadjole who works for the charity Medair. Young people seem to be particularly badly affected by the mpox outbreak because of their less developed immune systems. Dr Ngadjole also blames overcrowding at a nearby camp set up for people forced from their homes by conflict in the region.
One way mpox is spread is through very close contact and children “are always playing together. They don’t really care about social distance,” he tells the BBC. “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.” Since June, the clinic in Munigi, which provides free.