By Sam Mednick
Slumped on the ground over a mound of dirt, Divine Wisoba pulled weeds from her daughter’s grave. The 1-month-old died from mpox in eastern Congo in August, but Wisoba, 21, was too traumatized to attend the funeral.
In her first visit to the cemetery, she wept into her shirt for the child she lost and worried about the rest of her family. “When she was born, it was as if God had answered our prayers — we wanted a girl,” Wisoba said of little Maombi Katengey.
“But our biggest joy was transformed into devastation.”
Her daughter is one of more than 6,000 people officials suspect have contracted the disease in South Kivu province, the epicenter of the world’s latest mpox outbreak , in what the World Health Organization has labeled a global health emergency. A new
strain of the virus is spreading, largely through skin-to-skin contact, including but not limited to sex. A
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