At Nyiragongo Hospital, near Goma, in the eastern DRC, health care providers and hygienists from Congo assist patients with mumps.

Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo – At dawn at the mpox treatment center in Nyiragongo General Referral Hospital, just north of Goma, Congolese healthcare workers are already in action. They work with calm efficiency, screening, isolating, and caring for patients infected with the virus.

Two days earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) had issued its highest alert level for mpox following the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (Africa CDC) declaration of the viral disease, formerly known as monkeypox, as a continental emergency.

For doctors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), managing the current mpox outbreak has become routine despite ongoing medicine shortages, a persistent rebellion in the east, and years of battling Ebola epidemics on the front lines.

Amid the steady flow of patients visiting Nyiragongo General Referral Hospital for various ailments, teams of hygienists and healthcare providers focus on caring for mpox patients in a separate, white-tented area. Here, those with the highly contagious disease are isolated to prevent further spread.

Among the patients is Madam Nyota Joyeuse, a 35-year-old shopkeeper and mother of two. She rests in a small tent with three beds, having fallen ill about a week earlier. Initially, she experienced headache, fever, muscle aches, and a mild flu—symptoms common to malaria in North Kivu. When her condition didn't improve, she decided to seek medical attention at the clinic.

"I felt as if the whole universe had fallen on my head when I was told I had mpox," she tells Al Jazeera, expressing concern about her deteriorating health and the impact on her business.

Thankfully, the treatment is working. "It's promising. May the Almighty bless those who care for us," she says from her hospital bed.

An mpox patient rests in a treatment tent at Nyiragongo Hospital

From ‘Monkeypox’ to Mpox

First identified in monkeys in 1958 and originally named "monkeypox," the disease was renamed "mpox" in 2022 to help reduce stigma.

Endemic to parts of Central and West Africa, mpox is related to the virus that caused smallpox, which has since been eradicated. In severe cases, mpox can be fatal. 

Outbreaks are common in the DRC, but health experts attribute the recent surge to a new strain, clade 1, which is spreading more rapidly and widely than previous strains.

This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported cases in 13 African countries, as well as in Sweden, Pakistan, and the Philippines. According to the Africa CDC, mpox cases have increased by 160 percent in 2024 compared to the same period last year.

In the DRC, the disease has spread across all 26 provinces. As of last week, over 15,000 cases were reported, leading to 548 deaths this year.

Badiambila Mulumba, the medical director of Nyiragongo Hospital, told Al Jazeera that his facility began treating mpox in June and has since handled 278 cases, both positive and negative. As of August 10, there were 78 positive cases at his facility, but no deaths.