{"id":73008,"date":"2021-08-25T00:30:11","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T22:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/poverty-conflict-and-displacement-leave-children-at-risk-from-renewed-bubonic-plague-outbreaks-in-ituri-region-of-eastern-democratic-republic-of-congo\/"},"modified":"2021-08-25T00:30:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T22:30:12","slug":"poverty-conflict-and-displacement-leave-children-at-risk-from-renewed-bubonic-plague-outbreaks-in-ituri-region-of-eastern-democratic-republic-of-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/poverty-conflict-and-displacement-leave-children-at-risk-from-renewed-bubonic-plague-outbreaks-in-ituri-region-of-eastern-democratic-republic-of-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"Poverty, conflict and displacement leave children at risk from renewed Bubonic plague outbreaks in Ituri region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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UNICEF is increasingly concerned about the impact on children of a resurgence of Bubonic plague in the eastern province of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

New research, supported by UNICEF, in three health zones of Ituri shows that children are especially at risk of contracting plague, which in recent months has been making a comeback for the first time in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Figures released for the three health zones of Biringi, Rethy, and Aru – where UNICEF focused its research –\u00a0show that there were 490 plague cases between 2020 and 2021, with 20 fatalities.\u00a0The figures show that over the same period there were 578 cases and 44 plague-related deaths throughout the entire Ituri province.<\/p>\n

Ituri is one of only a handful of places in the world \u2013 including Madagascar and Peru – where plague cases continue to be reported. The latest outbreak differs from previous ones because both bubonic and the highly infectious pneumonic form of plague – transmitted from person to person through the air –\u00a0have been reported in areas previously free of the disease near the border with South Sudan and Uganda to the east of the province. Frequent population displacement and insecurity in the region creates a considerable risk of cross-border transmission.<\/p>\n

Plague outbreaks are often blamed on poor sanitation and hygiene practices which attract rats carrying fleas to villages in search of food, infecting people in their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe really worrying thing here is that we\u2019ve got plague reported in areas which had not seen a case for more than 15 years, and many more cases in areas where they had very few or none previously,\u201d said UNICEF Social Sciences Analytics Cell (CASS) Field Supervisor Izzy Scott Moncrieff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are grave consequences for children because they are more exposed to the risk factors of plague,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Scott Moncrieff said that the plague is mostly transmitted in rural areas by fleas\u00a0carried by wild rats. The rodents come into villages looking for food, allowing the fleas to infect domestic animals and livestock before the disease is eventually passed on to humans through flea bites.<\/p>\n

Plague can hit poorer families especially hard. Many who are also vulnerable to diseases such as malaria – lacking the finances to buy mosquito nets – are especially at risk.<\/p>\n

Yako Adhiku, 40, lives in a round, mud house with a thatched roof in the town of Aru. She first realised that her two-year-old daughter, Asizu, had caught the plague when the lymph nodes on her neck started to swell.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe also lost her appetite, had a fever and her gums were very red,\u201d Yako said. Fearing that her daughter would die, she hurried her to the health centre and was given pills for the girl and for the whole family in case they too had been infected.<\/p>\n

Plague is easily treatable with antibiotics, which are available\u00a0in most health zones of Ituri. But it\u2019s important to seek treatment quickly after noticing symptoms that are harder to treat the more the disease spreads through the body.<\/p>\n

Yako told researchers that she often saw rats scuttling around her home and borrowed a cat to try and keep them out of her house.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very existence of the plague here is making us poor,\u201d she says, \u201cI have to look after my sick child so I do not have time to go to the fields and farm anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recently published CASS report in the three targeted health zones in Ituri province found that although communities are aware of aggravating factors which increase their exposure to plague, poverty, conflict and displacement have meant they are not able to take action to protect themselves and their children. The problem is exacerbated by:<\/p>\n