A gold mining town in Congo has become an mpox hot spot as a new strain spreads, AP explains

(19 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kamituga, DRC – 4 September 2024
++STARTS ON SOUNDBITE++
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Mednick, The Associated Press:
“I’m standing in a health clinic in Kamituga in Congo’s South Kivu province where behind me there is a nearly packed isolation ward of people suffering from the mpox virus. South Kivu is the epicenter of this outbreak and Kamituga is where this new outbreak began and where a new strain of the virus was found earlier this year. Health officials say that if the situation is not brought under control here in Kamituga, which is a commercial hub with a lot of movement, a lot of minors, and a lot of sex workers, that the situation is going to be extremely hard to control in eastern Congo as well as in neighboring countries. Mpox is a disease that can be transferred through contact, but this new virus health officials say is extremely transmissible through sex.The international community is struggling here to stem the flow, they say they do not have enough resources. There’s not enough money. There’s been a sluggish response and they do not have what they need in order to stop the chain of transmission. What everyone here says that they need most, and that they need very quickly, are vaccines, which have yet to arrive."
2. Wide of Kamituga, South Kivu province
3. Various of locals in streets
4. Wide of ward managed by ALIMA (Alliance for International Medical Action)
5. Various of health workers
6. Various of health worker treating woman for mpox
7. Various of Richard Songa, who is receiving treatment at Kamituga clinic, with improved conditions
STORYLINE:
Congo’s South Kivu province is at the epicenter of the world’s latest mpox outbreak, in what the World Health Organization has called a global health emergency.

A new strain of the virus is rapidly spreading, largely through skin-to-skin contact, sparking alarm among disease experts.

Public health officials have zeroed in on Kamituga, a remote yet bustling gold mining town that attracts miners, sex workers and traders who are constantly on the move.

Health officials say cases found in other parts of eastern Congo can be traced back here, but a lack of funds, vaccines and information is making it difficult to stem the spread.

Since the outbreak began, nearly 1,000 people in Kamituga have been infected and eight have died, half of them children.

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