A laboratory-confirmed case of mpox has been registered in the city of Bunia in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Another woman has been isolated with a suspected infection, as specialists trace contacts and work to determine the source of the infection, according to infohub.kz.
Local hospital officials said the virus was officially confirmed in a 21-year-old female patient. She was hospitalized with characteristic skin lesions, and a laboratory test came back positive the following day.
The second patient, a 32-year-old woman, is still considered a suspected case and is awaiting test results. For safety, both have been placed in isolation, where a dedicated medical team is monitoring their condition.
Doctors are now urgently tracing the contacts of the isolated patients and trying to identify the primary source of the infection.
According to Adelard Lofungola, former deputy head of the relevant operational task force, five more possible cases are being investigated in Bunia alone. Overall, over the past month, Congo's Ministry of Health has recorded a rise in mpox cases in several regions at once.
The situation is complicated by the fact that the country's healthcare system is stretched to its limits due to a large-scale Ebola epidemic, making it extremely difficult to monitor and contain new infections.
Recall that mpox is a viral infection transmitted from person to person through close physical contact. The main symptoms are high fever and a characteristic skin rash.
Earlier, Kursiv reported that the death toll in the DRC from a new Ebola strain has already reached 3,779 people. A total of 7,820 cases have been confirmed. Due to a shortage of hospital beds, patients are dying in emergency rooms.