Understanding Mpox: Sifa Kunguja’s Experience in Kamituga

Sifa Kunguja, a sex worker, caught mpox four months ago in the rural village of Kamituga, which is at the core of an epidemic of a new type of the disease. She claims that, despite her recovery, she is unable to locate clients as easily as she formerly did.

She claimed that everyone in town avoided her after word spread that she was ill.

“Some people who are aware that I was sick with mpox gossip about me. So I no longer have any clients and can’t make ends meet. “I’ve lost everything,” she explained.

Kamituga is a mineral-rich mining town in South Kivu Province, home to an estimated 40,000 sex workers. Gold miners make up the vast majority of their clients.

Doctors believe that 80% of cases here were contracted sexually, however the virus can also spread through other forms of skin-to-skin contact.

In early September, sex workers gathered around tables in an outside cafe for a community mpox briefing. Irene Mabwidi was among them, and she stated that while she is used to being able to protect herself with condoms, she is now unsure how to keep herself healthy.

“When we work, we use condoms to protect ourselves against HIV and other illnesses. “For mpox, I feel like there is no protection because it passes through sweat,” she explained.Mpox often causes moderate symptoms like as fever and body aches, but severe instances can result in large, painful blisters on the face, hands, chest, and genitals.

According to rights groups, potential legal penalties and fear of reprisal – sex workers face high rates of violence, including rape and abuse — discourage women from obtaining medical care. Experts warn that this can be extremely harmful during a public health emergency.

Health officials in Kamituga are calling on the government to close nightclubs and mines and compensate sex workers for lost business.

Local officials claim they don’t have the resources to do more than care for the sick, and they believe it is the responsibility of sex workers to safeguard themselves.

Kamituga Mayor Alexandre Bundya M’pila told The Associated Press that the government is launching awareness campaigns but lacks the funds to reach everyone.

Right now, we must raise a lot of awareness. We need the means to destroy this. “We need vaccines,” he stated.

Miners in Kamituga’s mines, where men travel from all over the region to earn up to $120 per month – more than double the Congo’s average salary – say there has been no outreach.

Debus Bulambo claims he has already contracted mpox and doesn’t understand why the government isn’t doing more to combat the disease’s spread.

“People who have not yet been affected by this disease are not afraid of it,” he told me.”At this mining location, there is no awareness. We only hear about it on the radio, in our town, and at church. However, there is none in the mines.