Medair – responding to Mpox in Democratic Republic of Congo - 20 AUG 2024
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the latest strain of the mpox virus (Clade Ib) has already claimed more than 500 lives in the DR Congo this year.
With the WHO recommending on Monday (19th August) that vaccination plans should be launched in affected countries, along with starting the process of Emergency Use Listing (EUL) for mpox vaccines in August 2024, the fact remains that in DR Congo where the disease is widespread across all the 26 provinces with more than 15.000 cases detected since the beginning of 2024, there simply aren’t any vaccines to administer.
Dr Pierre Olivier Ngadjole is theMedair’s Medical Advisor in DR Congo, with more than 15 years’ experience in responding to public health emergencies in the country, and he is currently working in the East of DRC, including Goma town, where since June 2024 more than 300 suspected cases of mpox have been identified and treated. He confirms:
“The World Health Organisation is very supportive to the Ministry of Health in managing and developing a response plan which will include vaccination, but for now vaccines are not yet available in the country.”
Although DR Congo’s Health Minister said on Monday (19th August) that the country is set to receive its first mpox vaccine doses from the US next week, it remains unknown how quickly – or where – the vaccines will be distributed.
Dr Ngadjole comments: “At the moment, we don’t have information whether the vaccination plan will target specific at-risk populations, such as frontline health-workers, children, pregnant women, people with specific medical conditions and immunodepression, or will more broadly target theIDPs (Internally Displaced People) living in the camps around Goma, or the general population in the area. For now, there are no vaccines available in the east of the DRC where we are operating.”
Of all the new cases of mpox seen by Medair in the Goma area over the past two months, 90% come from IDP camps, where many people live in very close proximity and in poor hygienic conditions. 70% are children under the age of ten years.
Dr Ngadjole says: “The most common way to get infected is direct contact from a sick person. And in the camps, children play together.”
Encouragingly, he has observed that, while waiting for vaccines to be delivered, early intervention and good hygiene practices are key to help thwarting transmission – and mitigating the morbidity rates.
“Early intervention is key to preventing and limiting transmission. We have more than 100 people visiting each of our health facilities each day, so we need to be very strict in terms of personal protective equipment for all staff, as well as leading by example when it comes to simple measures like handwashing and social distancing.”
“Here in Goma, we have more than 330 cases in our clinics now. Across all these cases, we have seen zero deaths. People are coming to Medair early, so our messaging is landing well. It helps that we have been working in the DRC for a long time – since 1996 – so we are trusted. We are well known in the community because we’re not there only for mpox, we’ve been here for many years working on primary health care responses such as ebola.”
Medair in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Medair has been working in the DRC for 28 years, always striving to provide health and integrated services based on an effective understanding of the needs of those who live there.
Having recently responded to a cholera outbreak in the area around Goma, Medair’s teams have been well positioned to respond immediately to the outbreak of mpox.
Medair was the international NGO on the ground in the area to do so, as cases started in two of the health facilities in the IDP camps that Medair is supporting.
About Medair
We are a humanitarian aid charity who since 1989 has been responding to urgent health crises around the world, saving lives and relieving human suffering in some of the world’s most remote and devastated places.
Today we have over 1,500 employees worldwide, who are all humanitarian experts. Since our creation, we have helped more than 50 million people in 40 countries.
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Six things you should know about Medair
- We were the first international NGO to be registered in Kyiv to provide humanitarian assistance following the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine on 24th February 2022.
- We are in 7 of the top 10 countries in the EU’s INFORM Risk Index of countries with the greatest humanitarian need.
- We responded to the 6th February 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria within 24 hours.
- We have a long history in Afghanistan and have been providing humanitarian aid since 1996. We are one of a handful of NGOs who have experience of – and are able to continue – working with the de facto authorities to deliver relief.
- We have remained present in Sudan since the outbreak of war on 15th April 2023, not dropping a day of life-saving humanitarian assistance and increased our reach into new regions.
- Another NGO said of us: “When the road ends, Medair keeps going.” This speaks of our commitment to helping people who could be forgotten or neglected because they are hard to reach – due to terrain, security conditions or lack of roads.
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Jean-Bernard Palthey, Engagement Director jean-bernard.palthey@medair.org
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