AP journalists are the first to show what’s happening in an mpox epicenter in Congo

By Sam Mednick, Moses Sawasawa and Justin Katumwa

To show how an outbreak of mpox is affecting children, particularly in Africa, AP journalists could have taken the easier route. They could have traveled to an easily accessible clinic to find people suffering from the world’s latest outbreak of the disease. 

But they instead pressed to visit Kamituga, a remote gold mining city in eastern Congo that health officials say is the epicenter of a new variant of mpox. It was a place no journalists had been able to visit, even after the World Health Organization designated the outbreak as a global health emergency.

That is, no journalists had visited it until the intrepid team led by AP West Africa correspondent Sam Mednick did. 

It required much careful planning, as well as a day by boat across Lake Kivu followed by 13 hours through the muddy tracks of Congo’s forests, but Mednick, freelance photographer Moses Sawasawa and freelance video journalist Justin Katumwa reached Kamituga. Once there, the team knew time was short because rains were threatening to close the route, which could leave them stuck. 

The challenges didn’t end there. The new strain of mpox’s mode of transmission is little understood, so it was back to using the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and Ebola to protect themselves. From sterilization protocols to full personal protective equipment, the team took on additional burdens in the jungle heat to help minimize the risk. 

In just two days on the ground, the team was able to find a 21-year-old mother visiting the grave of her 1-month-old daughter who died from mpox. The words and images they delivered were searing and showed how little information locals in the area have about the disease. From there, the journey back out of Kamituga was even more difficult than the way in. Only after breakdowns, cars bogged in mud and traffic jams behind immobile trucks did the exhausted team get out with the story. 

Judges were impressed by the incredible drive of the team to reach such a remote area and the careful preparation to keep themselves from harm’s way, as well as the strength of the narrative and images they delivered. 

For delivering such a comprehensive look at an area of the world that few can manage to see, Mednick, Sawasawa and Katumwa earn this week’s Best of the AP — Second Winner.

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