The Democratic Republic of Congo, the smallpox epicenter, is less than a week away from launching its vaccination campaign but faces challenges in delivering doses across the vast country, where roads are limited and often in poor condition.
Residents of Kamituga, a bustling mining town in South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, will be among the first to be vaccinated when the vaccination campaign gets underway on October 2.
But authorities still face logistical challenges: Kamitsuga is served by only one road, leaving most of the surrounding communities isolated.
Taxis packed with passengers lined up alongside large trucks, slowly making their way up the winding, bumpy mountain roads.
Much of the road is dirt, interspersed with bridges made of metal beams and wooden planks that allow drivers to cross flooded rivers.
The town, where the latest MPOX outbreak began in September 2023, is about 180 kilometers (112 miles) from the provincial capital, Bukavu.
– “We’re scared.” –
Due to a lack of passable roads leading to Kamitsuga villages and suburbs, people are often transported to the town’s hospital by motorbike.
“We are the first at risk because we carry passengers and we don’t know if they are infected,” motorbike driver Salm Hassan told AFP.
The only protection Hassan and his colleagues have is to wear long-sleeved jackets and minimise physical contact with passengers.
“We are scared,” another driver, Daniel Ngama, told AFP.
According to official statistics, Kamituga has about 280,000 inhabitants.
But locals estimate the number to be closer to half a million.
Gold mining draws many people to towns, making population flows often difficult to monitor.
“This fluid population is causing a lot of problems,” said Evaristo Mbayu, who oversees workers detecting MPOX cases in villages and nearby areas.
People are coming from the eastern city of Bukavu, neighboring North Kivu province and even Burundi, he said.
“We are concerned that it will be difficult to vaccinate” people because of the comings and goings of the population, James Wakilonga Zangirwa, a doctor at Kamituga Hospital, told AFP.
“We have acted cautiously.”
At night, Kamitsuga’s clubs fill up with miners and prostitutes.
“There is no time to educate patients” about the risks of MPOX infection, Dr Dally Muamba Kambazi told AFP.
Local doctors say sex workers were the first to spread the virus in the town.
“We have no way to protect ourselves. It’s difficult to respect distancing measures when you sleep with someone who kisses you and takes off your clothes,” prostitute Nicole Mbukwa told AFP.
“We have been acting cautiously since the outbreak began,” said the 30-year-old, who hopes to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
“We are asking customers to undress and if they show any signs of flu they will be asked to leave,” she added.
The peak of the epidemic has now passed through the town, spreading north to the shores of Lake Kivu and east to the shores of Lake Tanganyika.
But authorities are confident they have the spread of the infection under control.
“The disease is stable and we are at a very positive stage,” South Kivu provincial governor Jean-Jacques Poursi told AFP.
Claude Bahijire, a doctor and spokesman for South Kivu’s provincial health department, told AFP that authorities had “cold rooms to store and transport the vaccines.”
Doses should be stored at a temperature of minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit).
Public trust in vaccines has plummeted in South Kivu since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published last year in the journal Human Vaccines and Immunotherapy.
But everyone AFP interviewed in Kamitsuga said they were ready to get vaccinated.
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