From mid-July to mid-September, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency teams responded to a typhoid fever outbreak in Popokabaka health zone, Kwango province. MSF teams were called in to intervene after the authorities confirmed the epidemic, but all indicates that the disease had already been present for several months and had claimed the lives of many patients.

Usually spread either by ingesting water or food contaminated with human faeces and secretions, or else through hand-to-hand contact, the main symptoms of typhoid are a prolonged fever, a headache and digestive problems including stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhoea.
Once diagnosed, typhoid is treatable in just a few days with antibiotics. But diagnosing it can be difficult, particularly in local health centres, because its symptoms are very similar to other diseases, and because laboratory analysis is needed. When treatment is delayed, typhoid can lead to serious complications and sometimes death.

In Popokabaka, it is estimated that more than 3,700 people have been affected since the beginning of the year. Before MSF launched its response, 29 in-hospital deaths had been reported, almost all of them post-operative.

MSF’s emergency team supported the Ministry of Health in treating patients with typhoid fever at Popokabaka hospital and seven other health facilities, while setting up sensitisation activities at community level. MSF teams also reinforced epidemiological surveillance and supported surgery services to deal with the many severe cases.

From mid-July to early September 2021, 2,180 patients were treated and thirty-one surgeries were performed (20 linked to typhoid fever, 11 to other surgical emergencies). In addition to treating typhoid fever, MSF treated more than 3,500 patients suffering from simple and severe malaria.