As cases have been rising for several weeks, provincial authorities in North Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo declared a cholera outbreak on Wednesday in Nyiragongo territory near the capital.
With our special correspondent in Goma, Coralie Pierret
At the Munigi cholera treatment center, most patients are children and women. 661 patients are currently affected by this disease and 4 of them have died since October 2022. Most are displaced from the crisis linked to the M23.
They live crammed together in camps for displaced people in Kanyarucinya, a few kilometers from Goma. This is the case of Alphonsine who came with these three children. Two of them are sick. ” My daughter is 5 years old and my son is 3 years old. First they had a cough, then vomiting and then diarrhoea. The doctors came to do the examinations and gave medicine, but at the moment I have not spoken with them about the diagnosis “says the mother.
Among those admitted, many are those who are declared positive for cholera. “ Every day, we take dozens of samples. Three-quarters are positive “, explains Jean-Claude Kabangwa, the sampling officer.
“We are always overwhelmed”
Initially planned for 100 patients, the center has reached its capacity limits, explains Doctor Alain Bishikabo of Médecins sans Frontières. ” We had a bed occupancy rate that was over 100% so we installed more beds. We have rearranged the distance between the beds again to have 124 now. But we are always overwhelmed because we have 160 patients “, he details.
At the fountain, the sick guards fill the buckets to clean the chamber pots. In the IDP camps where they come from, access to water and latrines is lacking and favors the spread of cholera.
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