The unknown disease with flu-like symptoms that has killed 143 people in a southwestern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is actually a severe form of malaria, aggravated by malnutrition of those who suffer from it.
The country’s Ministry of Public Health clarified this Tuesday the nature of this previously unidentified disease that was circulating in the Panzi health zone and that the World Health Organization (WHO) was investigating, according to the agency. Reuters. “The mystery has finally been solved,” says the Government statement. “This is a case of severe malaria in the form of a respiratory disease… and weakened by malnutrition.”
In early December, local authorities reported the death of 143 people in the southwestern province of Kwango. Immediately afterwards, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the UN health agency had been alerted and was working together with the Ministry of Public Health to investigate the situation.
Infected people had flu-like symptoms, including high fever and severe headaches, which we now know were due to this malaria outbreak in a particularly depressed area of the country.
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