Over 300 die of monkey pox

Meanwhile, lack of drinking water, poor infrastructure and high prices of medicines had contributed to the emergence of acute public health problems in Mbuji-Mayi, resulting in a marked increase in mortality rates, the OCHA report stated. It said the arrival of displaced people from Sankuru had led to an outbreak of monkey pox in the city, with 315 deaths attributed to the disease in 1999. The incidence of measles had increased because unvaccinated children had arrived from rebel-held areas. It said some one million people in the province had been exposed to trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness.