Border regions in countries neighbouring DRC raise alert levels and screening measures as the mpox virus spreads
Businesswoman Mary Malisi crosses the border regularly for work. The Kenyan hotel owner buys grain from markets in Uganda for use in her establishment back home in the border town of Malaba.
On both sides of the Kenya-Uganda border, Malaba – which shares one name – is bustling and vibrant, filled with people of different cultures and nationalities constantly passing through.
Malaba is a one-stop border post which clears more than 2,000 trucks every day, making it the busiest transit route among East African countries.
On the Ugandan side, there is also the Malaba river which marks another busy crossing point between the neighbours.
On August 14, when a new strain of the mpox virus known as Clade 1b was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), Malisi and others who travel frequently became worried
Just recently, a first case was recorded on this border.
A truck driver had travelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo – where the outbreak emerged – through to Uganda, on to the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa. He then travelled back using the same route and fell sick on arrival in Uganda. He has since recovered.
Health officials in Kenya and Uganda say they have increased surveillance along their borders. Malisi has noticed the changes
“We are directed to hand washing points on arrival in both countries. When I come back to Kenya, I have to be tested. Some people are taken for further examinations by health officials when they present some symptoms,” she told Al Jazeera.
Such screenings are not new to this region and were also enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
So Malisi knows the drill: temperate checks for fever and rapid tests – and she is glad for it.
The Clade 1b variant of mpox has infected more than 19,000 people so far, mostly in the DRC but also in neighbouring Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. These countries had never reported cases of mpox before now.
More than 500 people in DRC have died from mpox since last year, health authorities there said.
‘A lot of crises’
The DRC faced an outbreak in 2023. Doctors treating patients say Clade 1b, the new mutation, is spreading rapidly and is far more dangerous.
The first case of this new strain was traced back to a gold mining area of Kamituga in
It’s a town filled with artisanal miners from across the region, including Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. They often use informal crossings to get to their destinations.
Mpox is transmitted through close contact, including sex and skin-to-skin touch, as well as talking or breathing close to another person or touching contaminated objects. The disease has been endemic in DRC for decades. It causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions and can be lethal.
Dr Pierre Olivier works for Medair, a medical aid agency that runs a treatment centre in North Kivu’s capital, Goma.
He has dealt with an Ebola outbreak that killed more than 2,000 people in 2022 (it was not the first Ebola outbreak in the country); COVID-19; measles and cholera, which health workers are still struggling to contain