After COVID and Ebola, doctors take on mpox amid conflict in eastern DRC

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The mpox outbreak puts pressure on the eastern region already struggling with a lack of medicines and an ongoing armed rebellion.

Congolese healthcare workers and hygienists help care for patients with mpox at Nyiragongo Hospital near Goma, eastern DRC [Prosper Heri Ngorora/Al Jazeera

Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo – It’s dawn at the mpox treatment site at Nyiragongo General Referral Hospital, north of the city of Goma, and Congolese medics are already hard at work, calmly and efficiently screening, isolating and caring for patients infected with the disease.

Two days prior, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its highest alert level for mpox after the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) declared the viral disease previously known as monkeypox a continental emergency.

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But for doctors in DRC – who have been tackling the latest mpox outbreak since 2022 amid medicine shortages, an ongoing rebellion in the east, and after years toiling on the front lines of Ebola epidemics – the challenges have become routine.

In between the stream of patients visiting the Nyiragongo Hospital for all number of ailments, teams of hygienists and other health providers tend to mpox patients in a separate white tented area where those suffering from the highly infectious disease can be isolated to avoid any risk of contamination.

Among them, shopkeeper Madam Nyota Joyeuse is resting in a small three-bed tent. The 35-year-old mother of two fell ill about a week prior.

She had a headache, fever, muscle aches and a slight flu, so assumed it was malaria, which is common in North Kivu. But when her symptoms weren’t easing days later, she finally came to the clinic.

“I felt as if the whole universe had fallen on my head when I was told I had monkeypox,” she tells Al Jazeera, worried that her health had deteriorated and her business would come to a halt.

But the treatment she’s receiving is helping her. “Fortunately, that’s promising. May the Almighty bless those who take care of us,” she says from her hospital bed.

‘Monkeypox’ to mpox

Originally named “monkeypox” when it was first identified in monkeys in 1958, the name of the disease was updated to “mpox” in 2022 to reduce stigma.

Endemic to parts of Central and West Africa, mpox is related to the virus that caused the now-eradicated smallpox, and can be fatal in severe cases.

Although outbreaks are common in DRC, health experts say the recent rise is due to a new strain, clade 1, that is spreading faster and wider than ever before.

This week, the WHO said cases have been detected in 13 African countries, as well Sweden, Pakistan and the Philippines.

The Africa CDC said cases are up 160 percent in 2024 compared with the same period last year.

In DRC the disease has been detected in all 26 provinces. As of this week, the country recorded more than 16,000 cases of mpox, resulting in about 570 deaths this year.

Badiambila Mulumba, the medical director of Nyiragongo Hospital, tells Al Jazeera his facility began treating mpox this June, and has since registered 278 cases referred to them – “both positive and negative cases”, he says.

As of August 10, there were 78 positive cases at his facility, but no deaths.

“We continue to control cases. There are mild and serious cases, but no deaths,” he tells Al Jazeera.