Mpox in Burundi: On the frontline of the fight to halt the spread

Egide Irambona, 40, sits bare-chested on his hospital bed, next to the window, in a treatment room that he shares with two other men.

The rays of the evening sun shining above Burundi’s main city, Bujumbura, filter in. His face, bathed in a soft light, is covered in blisters. His chest too, and his arms.

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

Mr Irambona has mpox.

He is one of the more than 170 confirmed cases recorded since last month in Burundi. One of the poorest countries in the world, it borders the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicentre of several recent mpox outbreaks, which have led to at least 450 deaths and 14,000 suspected cases so far this year.

In Burundi, there have been no recorded deaths and it is not yet clear how deadly the current outbreak – of a new strain called Clade 1b – is because there is not enough capacity to carry out testing in the affected areas.

However, it has been declared a global health emergency because of fears it could spread quickly to previously unaffected countries and regions.

This is Mr Irambona’s ninth day of treatment at the King Khaled University Hospital. One way that the virus is spread is through close contact with someone infected and it seems that he passed it on to his wife.

She is also being looked after at the same facility.

“I had a friend who had blisters. I think I got it from him. I did not know it was mpox. Thankfully our seven children have not shown any signs of having it,” Mr Irambona says, his voice trailing off.

This hospital in Bujumbura is home to one of three mpox treatment centres in the city.

Fifty-nine of the 61 available beds are occupied by infected patients – a third are under the age of 15 and, according to the World health Organization, children are the worst-affected age group here.