Burundi family's ordeal highlights Africa's Mpox vaccine shortage

Members of a family in Burundi are recovering from Mpox, a disease that has swept through sub-Saharan Africa with alarming speed. - REUTERS

Transcript

00:0012-year-old Sumaya Hatungimana of Burundi is one of the lucky ones.

00:05The fading scars on her face, hands and feet mark her recovery from INPOX, which has swept

00:10through sub-Saharan Africa with alarming speed.

00:13She described her ordeal to Reuters.

00:15SUMAYA HATUNGIMANA, Burundi Resident I started feeling very cold, then my head

00:21began to hurt so much that even medicine could not ease the headache.

00:26My throat hurt as well, so I took more medicine, but I did not seem to get better.

00:31I decided to tell my mother that my fever was not going away.

00:35My head hurt, my throat hurt, and I could not swallow any food because it was so painful.

00:42Her father Omar Kagoma watched helplessly as both his daughter and son battled the disease.

00:47OMAR KAGOMA, Burundi Resident I was afraid when I saw my children suffering

00:50because I had already seen on social media how people suffer.

00:54That's why I decided to take them to the hospital.

00:57God has helped us.

00:58You see here behind me my children playing with others without any problem.

01:03Burundi has emerged as a significant INPOX hotspot in the region, second only to the

01:07Democratic Republic of the Congo in recorded cases.

01:11Olivier Njimberi is Burundi's health ministry spokesman.

01:14OLIVIER NJIMBERI, Burundi Health Ministry Spokesman We have already recorded 171 confirmed

01:19cases with the laboratories, which are currently being treated in various hospitals in the

01:24country.

01:25OLIVIER NJIMBERI, Burundi Health Ministry Spokesman The outbreak has exposed a stark

01:29inequity in global health resources, as two INPOX vaccines are widely available in at

01:34least 70 countries outside Africa.

01:37Meanwhile, African nations are struggling to access the life-saving vaccines due to

01:42financial constraints.

01:43The World Health Organization has designated the outbreak a public health emergency, but

01:48regulatory hurdles and competing health priorities have slowed vaccine approval and distribution

01:53processes in many African nations.