Burundi : fight against the Mpox pandemic, city dwellers seem to trivialize the disease

Measures to prevent the spread of monkeypox are not seriously respected in different neighborhoods of the commercial capital Bujumbura. Despite incessant calls and warnings from the authorities, the population turns a deaf ear.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The meeting of September 2, 2024 held by the Burundian Prime Minister with various stakeholders in the health sector and all services to combat the spread of monkeypox shows that the commercial city of Bujumbura has a high number of people already infected by the disease. Out of 313 cases tested positive for the pandemic, 200 patients were identified in Bujumbura.

“The district of Ntahangwa in the north of Bujumbura records more cases,” according to the mayor of Bujumbura, Jimmy Hatungimana.

Paradoxically, inhabitants of different localities are making less effort to combat the spread of the pandemic. The ministry in charge of health continues to call on the population to “respect hygiene measures, avoid getting close to each other or shaking hands” in particular.

It is difficult to get there at a time when people greet each other as usual, hug each other when they meet, jostle each other in bus queues or pile into transport buses during this period of fuel shortage.

“Do you think we are going to die of Mpox when we have survived the Coronavirus? That is impossible,” says one of the people we met in downtown Bujumbura, laughing, where unemployed people spend entire days.

“With the current travel problems, even if there was a person in the vehicle showing signs of the disease, they would not be able to get off or they would not be reported,” says another city dweller, also met in the center of the commercial city, ironically.

However, in some commonly frequented places such as markets, officials have already installed hand washing facilities, although many people pass by without a problem.

In the meantime, there is a glaring lack of drinking water in the neighborhoods, especially on the outskirts of Bujumbura. This is also mentioned as a major challenge in dealing with the pandemic. During this meeting on September 2, Prime Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca recommended that various officials ensure strict compliance with hygiene measures and that the ministry in charge of water work with Regideso (the only state-owned company in charge of water and electricity distribution) for the rapid replacement of outdated pipes in order to supply the population with drinking water.

A few days ago, the WHO (World Health Organization) declared monkeypox

A few days ago, the WHO (World Health Organization) declared the variole of the monkey as an urgency of public health of international scope. Burundi is one of the African countries more threatened by MPOX.

In Burundi, no death has been announced by health authorities so far. In the neighboring DRC, WHO and health authorities speak of a worrying situation.

A first delivery of nearly 100,000 doses of MPOX vaccines is expected Thursday in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the country most affected by the epidemic, the director general of the health agency of the African Union (Africa CDC) announced told AFP on Wednesday.

The vast central African country has recorded more than 19,000 cases and more than 650 deaths since the start of the year, according to latest figures from the Congolese Ministry of Health. In the DRC, 62% of confirmed cases of contamination concern children, according to the Africa CDC.

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Photo : A child with MPOX in the MPOX isolation unit of a hospital supported by the UNICEF in the province of South Kivu, in DR Congo, July 23, 2024. ©️ Unicef/Uni624808/BENEKIRE