Pope prays for Congo, others affected by mpox

Pope Francis urges governments and private industries to "share available technology and treatments, so that no one lacks adequate medical care."

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With a growing number of deaths in Democratic Republic of Congo caused by mpox — formerly called monkeypox — the Pope assured his solidarity this August 25 after praying the midday Angelus.

I wish to express my solidarity with the thousands of people affected by monkeypox, which is already a global health emergency. I pray for all those infected, especially for the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who have been so sorely tried.
I express my closeness to the local Churches in the countries most affected by this disease and encourage governments and private industries to share available technology and treatments, so that no one lacks adequate medical care.

The Pope visited the DRC at the beginning of 2023. The photo above is from his arrival in the capital.

The situation in the DRC is worsened by the fact that the country is in armed conflict.

“It’s usually said that the Congo has the largest population in need of humanitarian aid in the world. There are considered to be 25 million people that need humanitarian aid,” said Johannes Schildknecht, program manager for Malteser International, the humanitarian aid agency of the Order of Malta, in May.

As we reported then, “The two big Congo wars in the 90s and the early 2000s basically destabilized the country completely,” Malteser’s Schildknect told Aleteia.

Schildknect explained that in three provinces in the east of the DRC, “the situation actually never really calmed down”: Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu.

This is where high spread of the mpox is also being found. There are already tens of thousands of cases in DRC.

Mpox

Almost all the cases of mpox in Africa — 96% — are in the DRC, and children younger than 15 account for 60% of these cases.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization labeled it with its highest alert, a “public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).”

According to a report at the US CDC, “Since January 2023, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported more than 27,000 suspect mpox cases and more than 1,300 deaths.”