Just in time to mark the start of the Halloween season, comes news that Monkeypox is teaming up with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
This week, health officials are confirming a case of Monkeypox in Bunia, in the DRC’s Ituri province. This region is already responding to a major Ebola outbreak.
Mpox is a viral disease that causes fever and skin lesions and spreads through close physical contact.
Congo declared an end to mpox as a national public health emergency in April after a three-year outbreak that resulted in more than 34,000 confirmed cases nationwide. Authorities cautioned at the time that the virus had not been eradicated and could resurge.
The latest case involves a 21-year-old woman who was admitted to hospital on Thursday with lesions across her body consistent with mpox, hospital director Davin Ambitapio Musungufu said. She tested positive on Friday, he and two health officials told Reuters.
Reports indicate that five other suspected Monkeypox cases in Bunia are currently under investigation
This week, the U.S. announced it would send another $267 million to help contain the Ebola outbreak in the DRC. The money is intended for treatment units, safe-burial teams, protective and medical supplies, surveillance, and contact tracing. This brings the total amount our country has provided for this response to $886 million.
Our State Department hopes that other UN members do more to address these outbreaks than redo world maps.
Senior State Department officials announced the funding on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, hoping for pledges of new funds from other countries to meet a target of $2 billion to fight the disease, mainly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The outbreak was detected in May and is already the second most lethal on record, behind one in West Africa from 2014 to 2016.
On Wednesday, Congolese Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka described the outbreak as a “major test” for the country.
“For the DRC, fighting this epidemic is an absolute priority. After having contained 16 previous outbreaks, the DRC is mobilizing recognized scientific and operational expertise. And thanks to national mobilization and the support of our partners, the response has recently begun producing tangible results,” she told the United Nations General Assembly.
The US pledge on Wednesday brings the Trump administration’s commitment to tackling the outbreak to $886 million, including $107 million from the Department of Health and Human Services in addition to State Department funding.
At least the British are trying to help.
A rare form of Ebola, known as the Bundibugyo species, is spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where more than 7,800 people have caught the virus since May, 3,700 of whom have died.
To prepare for the threat of imported cases, Britain has positioned three experts in and around the South Sudanese capital, Juba. They will assist and train local authorities on infection control, set up awareness campaigns for local communities, and test people crossing the border for the virus.
…Experts fear it is only a matter of time before the virus spreads to South Sudan, which shares a 500-mile border with the DRC. Thousands of people cross the frontier each day to work, attend school and trade goods, mostly fish, in lucrative markets between the two countries.
If the virus gained a foothold in South Sudan, which became the newest country on earth after severing ties with Khartoum in 2011, experts fear the consequences would be catastrophic and worsen an already dire humanitarian situation.
Halloween may be weeks away, but the public-health nightmare in the DRC needs no costumes or special effects.
With Monkeypox now confirmed in Bunia amid the Ebola response, surveillance, treatment, and help from neighboring countries matter far more than another round of UN pageantry.
Let’s hope the promised funding and supplies reach the people fighting these outbreaks before either virus delivers a more frightening October surprise.
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