Inside the Red Zone: Sierra Leone’s mpox outbreak
Inside a quarantine zone on the edge of a military hospital, a 32-year-old man with lesions all over his body is losing his battle with disease.
Ibrahim Turay, a construction worker from the capital, Freetown, has a severe case of mpox, the virus formerly known as monkeypox that exploded in Sierra Leone earlier this year.
For more than a month he has been unable to overcome the infection because his immune system is compromised. A secondary infection has resisted every antibiotic available, leaving him in a horribly precarious position.
“My situation, it is getting worse – some areas are getting better, but there are more boils popping up all the time,” he said, referring to the lumps and blisters that continue to erupt all over him.
He’s among more than 5,000 people who have now tested positive for mpox in Sierra Leone since the first case was confirmed in December last year. At least 47 people have died, according to the latest update from the Ministry of Health on Monday.
While in the West mpox is largely seen as a problem only for certain at-risk groups, particularly gay men, mass outbreaks in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo have shown that, under the right conditions, it can cause devastation.
Dr En Ebbie visits mpox patient Morita Marrah, 45.
Clinical lead at the 34 Military hospital in Freetown, Dr Adama Florence Moses Kamara.
Construction worker Ibrahim Turay, 32, an immunocompromised Mpox patient in the 34 Military Hospital, Freetown.
For more than a month Mr Turay has been unable to overcome the infection because his immune system is compromised.
Infectious disease expert Dr Elin Hoffmann Dahl examines a patient at the MSF Mpox Treatment Centre, Calaba Town.
Mpox patient at the PTS Mpox Treatment Centre, Hastings.
Isatu Kabia, 46, and her eldest son Ali, 23. Her youngest boy Osman Kargbo was taken from home in Lunsar to a hospital 30 miles away after he was suspected of having mpox.
Isatu Kabia, 46, and her youngest boy Osman Kargbo, 12, who was taken from his home to an adult isolation ward in Port Loko Regional Hospital.
Osman Kargbo, 12, was taken from his home in Lunsar to an adult isolation ward in Port Loko Regional Hospital 30 miles away after he was suspected of having mpox.
Isatu Kabia, 46, and her youngest boy Osman Kargbo,12, who was diagnosed with mpox, leaves Port Loko Regional Hospital after recovering.
A man with his pet monkey in Pamuronko.
An MSF mpox community outreach programme, Pamuronko. Maria Diaz, MSF Health Promotion and Community Engagement Worker, centre.
An MSF mpox community outreach programme, Pamuronko.
Mpox lesions on an Mpox patient in the 34 Military Hospital, Freetown.
A patient at the MSF Mpox Treatment Centre, Calaba Town.
11 year old Paul Nyandemah looks out from his isolation room. He regularly cries for his father who visits every day if he can. His mother can’t visit as she is still breast-feeding her other child.
cFive-month old baby Favour Iyesatu Sesay, Mpox patient at the 34 military Hospital, Freetown. The white powder on her face is residue from the application of Calamine lotion to help relieve the itching.
Dr Samuel Kelly, clinical lead at the PTS Mpox Treatment Centre, Hastings.
Dr Kelly with a patient on the mpox ward.
Freetown’s 34 Military Hospital.
A nurse attends to Mpox patients at the 34 military hospital in Freetown.
Construction worker Ibrahim Turay, 32, an immunocompromised Mpox patient in the 34 Military Hospital, Freetown.
Paul Nyandemah, 11 yrs, a patient at the 34 Military Hospital, looks out from his isolation room.
Port Loko Regional Hospital.
Mpox patient at the PTS Mpox Treatment Centre, Hastings.
Mpox patient Baindu J Samai, 2 years, with her mother Samai Bandera in isolation at the MSF Hospital, Hangha Town.