The World Health Organization has warned that hunger, poverty, malnutrition and disease have reached alarming levels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly in the east, where resurgent fighting between armed groups and government forces has driven millions from their homes.
Dr. Boureima Hama Sambo, WHO Representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said: “The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the second largest displacement crisis in the world after Sudan, with an increasing number of people forced to flee violence since the beginning of this year.”
The combination of violence, climate shocks and the pandemic has worsened the humanitarian and overall health situation of millions of people who are struggling to find enough food and a safe place to live, Sambo told reporters in Geneva on Friday in the capital Kinshasa. Stay and help prevent disease outbreaks.
“The hospitals are full of wounded people,” he said. “Nearly 10 million people are on the move. Poverty and hunger affect a quarter of the population, or 25.4 million people. The spread of cholera and other infectious diseases poses a major threat to population health.”
The United Nations relief agency says more than 2 in 5 children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (about 6 million children) suffer from chronic malnutrition, a condition that causes stunted growth, impairs cognitive development and, in severe cases of acute malnutrition, Risk of death.
“Combined with malnutrition, disease is increasing the risk of death, especially among children, and putting greater pressure on health systems,” Sambo said.
“Women and girls are paying a high price for armed conflict and displacement,” he said, noting that “in 2023, 30,000 cases of gender-based violence were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These figures are among the highest in the world.”
Flooding increases risk
In addition to conflict-related challenges, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 18 of the DRC’s 26 provinces were devastated by severe flooding, leaving more than 2 million people, nearly 60 percent of them children, in need of assistance.
The World Health Organization says flooding is exacerbating the risk of diarrhea and water-borne diseases. This, combined with outbreaks of other diseases such as cholera, measles, polio, yellow fever, anthrax and plague, crippled an already fragile health system.
“The Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing its worst cholera epidemic since 2017, with 50,000 suspected cases and 470 deaths expected in 2023,” Sambo said, adding that camps for internally displaced persons with “deplorable living conditions” , the risk is particularly high.
He said the country is also dealing with its worst measles outbreak since 2019, with nearly 28,000 cases and 750 deaths so far this year
“Measles and malnutrition have a serious impact on the health of children under five, which is further exacerbated by a lack of vaccines and vaccination services,” he said.
MPOX threat intensifies
In addition to these issues, the World Health Organization has warned that MPOX, formerly known as monkeypox, is on the rise across the country over the past year, with nearly 4,000 suspected cases and 271 deaths reported.
This represents a higher case fatality rate than during the year-long WHO-declared international public health emergency for the disease starting in May 2022. More than two-thirds of the reported cases so far are children, the report said.
Mpox is a zoonotic disease first discovered in 9-month-old infants in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, when the country was known as Zaire. Dr Rosamund Lewis, WHO’s technical lead for MPOX, said children remained the greatest risk of contracting and dying from the disease.
“The number of cases has gradually increased over time. We are seeing more than double the number of cases in 2023 compared to 2022…There is clear concern about the continued spread of this disease, not only through zoonotic transmission, but also through Through sexual contact between people,” she said.
“Another new aspect of transmission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is that sexual transmission of clade type 1 (a variant of MPOX) had not been reported before 2023. What we are seeing now are newly reported sexual transmissions in different parts of the country, where It’s not an endemic disease of mpox.”
The disease is spreading “in areas where there is a lot of commercial activity, including cross-border and active commercial sex trade,” Lewis said.
The World Health Organization reports that mpox has expanded into previously unaffected provinces, such as nearly all provinces. Cases are now being reported, including in Kinshasa. “This poses a threat to neighboring countries and other countries,” it warned.
WHO representative Sambo pointed out that the country’s humanitarian needs are soaring, with nearly 20 million people in need of health assistance this year. He said that despite facing complex challenges, the World Health Organization has been scaling up its health response since last year.
For example, he said, the WHO vaccinated nearly 5 million people against cholera in November, mostly in the eastern provinces, and millions more against deadly measles last year. Next week, he said the World Health Organization plans to launch a polio vaccination campaign in all 26 provinces.
However, he said it would be difficult to continue such life-saving programs if the health response remained woefully underfunded, noting that the World Health Organization had received less than $624 million of its appeal this year. 14%.
He urged the world not to “turn a blind eye to a situation that could have serious knock-on effects on security and health in the region.”
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