“So painful I couldn’t sleep”

An African man who contracted a new strain of mpox known as Clade 1b is speaking out about the distressing symptoms of the viral infection.

Egide Irambona, 40, is currently being treated in a hospital in his home country of Burundi as the mpox outbreak in Africa continues, sparking fears of another global pandemic.

Last week, the Director-General of the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern”, with cases of Clade 1b also recorded in Thailand and Sweden.

Clade 1b is spreading primarily through heterosexual transmission and appears to be less lethal than other mpox variants, but appears to be more contagious.

Irambona told the BBC that the disease causes excruciating pain, saying: I had swollen lymph nodes in my throat. It was so painful that I couldn’t sleep,” he explained. “Then the pain subsided there and moved to my legs.”

have climbed to more than 170 in Burundi over the past month as Africa’s outbreak continues, the painful disease that causes patients to break out in blisters.

Egide Irambona is one such patient in the East African country, who told the BBC he could not sleep because of the pain.

“I had swollen lymph nodes in my throat. It was so painful that I couldn’t sleep,” he explained. “Then the pain subsided there and moved to my legs.”

He is currently nine days into treatment at King Khaled University Hospital, where he shares a room with two other patients. He believes he contracted the contagious viral infection from a friend.

“I had a friend who had blisters. I think I got it from him. I didn’t know it was mpox,” he said. “Thankfully our seven children have shown no signs of having it.”

However, his wife has also been infected and is being treated at the same medical facility which is overflowing with cases – 59 of the hospital’s 61 beds are currently occupied with mpox patients.

“We are now setting up tents outside,” Odette Nsavyimana, the doctor who runs the hospital, told the BBC, expressing concern over the growing number of cases.

If the numbers continue to rise, she added, “there is no capacity for us to handle it.”

“It’s hard, especially when the babies come. They can’t stay alone, so I have to keep their mothers here too. Even if they don’t have symptoms,” she continued. “It’s such a difficult situation.”

While there have been no confirmed deaths due to the new type of mpox in Burundi, there is limited testing available to determine how fatal the outbreak actually is.

“This is a real challenge. The fact that the diagnosis is made only in one country delays the discovery of new cases,” said Dr. Liliane Nkengurutse, national director for the Center for Public Health Emergency Operations.

It takes a while to activate a team to get samples and test them, and it takes even longer for the results to come in, she added, estimating that they need roughly $14 million to improve their response. to the disease.

There is currently no word on when Burundi will begin administering mpox vaccines.

Meanwhile, health officials are urging the public to stay safe, even if that is proving difficult.

“Many people do not understand the gravity of this issue,” Nkengurutse explained. “Even where there have been cases, people still just blend in.”

When the BBC asked people in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura about mpox, many did not know what it was or that it was spreading in their communities.

“I have heard of this disease, but I have never seen anyone suffering from it. I have only seen it on social networks”, said an anonymous person.

“I know it affects babies and young people. I’m afraid of that, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stay home alone. i have to work My family needs to eat,” another unidentified person told the media.