A mysterious disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has infected more than 400 people and killed more than 30, most of them children, according to the World Health Organization.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing on Tuesday that the agency was informed just two weeks ago of the outbreak centered in the country’s remote Kwango province in central Africa.
So far, symptoms of the flu-like illness include headache, cough, fever, difficulty breathing and anemia.
Ghebreyesus said 10 of the first 12 samples taken from the victims tested positive for malaria, suggesting the patients may have been suffering from multiple diseases at once. . All of the people who fell seriously ill with the mysterious illness also suffered from severe malnutrition, which weakened their immune systems.
A team of experts dealing with the disease, including epidemiologists, clinicians, laboratory technicians and infection prevention and control experts, arrived on Tuesday after taking several days to reach Panaji due to travel difficulties during the rainy season. Arrived early. Ghebreyesus told reporters..
Of the 416 people who have contracted the disease and the 31 who have died, most are children, with a significant number under the age of five, he said. Previous reports suggested that most of the infected people were people over the age of 15. Local authorities told Reuters. Since late October, 143 people have died from the disease.
The Panzi Health District of Kwango is a rural and remote community located more than 600 miles from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. WHO said identification of the disease was limited because land access from Kinshasa, which takes about 48 hours, is difficult during the rainy season and communications are limited.
On Monday, a WHO spokesperson in Kinshasa told USA TODAY that medical teams had to collect new samples because the first sample collected in Panzi was not in optimal condition for laboratory analysis.
Samples can help identify the pathogen or combination of pathogens that may cause the disease. Current candidates include influenza, pneumonia, coronaviruses like COVID-19, and measles.
WHO researchers are also working to understand how the disease is transmitted from person to person, and to help others who may have been infected or died from the disease. I’m looking for it.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a weak healthcare system and ongoing turmoil caused by civil war, making it difficult to provide adequate healthcare services to large parts of the country.
WHO, African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and local health authorities try to respond to an mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that has sparked a global health emergency as investigations into this mysterious disease take place. I have been trying.
A different type of infectious disease than the one prevalent in the United States hit Congo hard in 2024. The country has reported approximately 9,900 confirmed cases of mpox and 45,800 suspected cases. Africa CDC data.
As of Tuesday, 1,153 people had died from mpox in Congo.
Contributed by: USA TODAY, Adrianna Rodriguez, Karen Weintraub, Reuters
