500 patients with MPOX escape from clinics after robbery of rebels

More than 500 MPOX patients have fled clinics in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the last month against the background of the current conflict.

Officials in Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a leading health agency on the continent, said they were worried as missing patients risk spreading the highly contagious disease suspected of killing 900 people in the Congo last year.

Patients have fled facilities in Goma and Bukavu – two cities that have descended into chaos as they have been seized by Rwanda -supported rebels in recent weeks.

“We were looted. We lost equipment. It was a disaster,” said Dr. Samuel Muhindo, responsible for the Goma clinic, before the BBC.

Mpox – known as MonkeyPox – can cause symptoms such as lesions, headaches and fever.

According to Africa, CDC, since the beginning of this year, almost 2890 MPOX cases and 180 deaths have been reported in the country, which is in the epicenter of several recent outbreaks.

Muhindo described how 128 patients escaped from Goma Mugung’s health center as a result of the fighting in late January.

His health workers have failed to track them as the clinic documents have been destroyed, he said.

At Bisengimana, a hospital in Goma, which also treats MPOX, Looters takes medicines and personal protective equipment.

The fires were lit outside the center and when the perpetrators left, the patients’ medical records were left on the floor.

The situation is further complicated by the M23 decision to close a network of camps in Goma, where in recent years tens of thousands of people who have sought asylum from battles.

Were given to them 72 hours to leave last weekAlthough later M23 said it was encouraging “voluntary income”.

“We are now afraid of the outbreak of the epidemic in the areas where displaced people have returned,” said Dr. Muhindo.

His fears are voiced by Africa CDC.

“Once again, we are really calling for the termination of the fire, as well as the Humanitarian Corridor Creation Agency to facilitate the continuation of MPOX interventions,” D -Rgashi Ngango, MPOX incident manager, said on Thursday in Africa.

In the last week, Africa CDC has said that the number of missing MPOX patients has increased by 100 as battles escalate and rebels take more territory.

Dr. Ngongo added that a new MPOX variant was found in Congo with “high potential for higher portability”.

The country’s ability to respond to the disease is impeded by the conflict between the army of M23 and the Congo, as well as a lack of funding.

The MPOX facility at Mugunga, funded by the UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF) and UK Aid Direct, managed to reopen last week.

But he is already so crowded that there are times when four or five patients have to share one bed.

“For the first time, I escaped from Minova to Goma, when the M23 rebels began to progress from there,” the BBC, a 23-year-old, who was treated in Mugunga, with two of his children.

“I started to get sick in a camp for displaced people). It started with my fingers, and then I had lesions that began to break on my hands. My neighbors told me to go to Mugunga with my children. I left my wife behind me.”

He said he saw “so many” people with MPOX before arriving at the clinic last week.

Dr. Oummani Rouafi, Unicef’s Goma Health Specialist, told the BBC that the only reason for Mugunga hospital to open again because the staff managed to hide some equipment and medicine from the robbery.

But it was not so in many other medical centers that were completely distracted, he said.