An unknown disease has killed 143 people in the southwestern province of Democratic Republic of the Congo in November, according to local authorities.
Infected people had flu-like symptoms, such as high fever and severe headachesRemy Saki, deputy governor of Kwango province, and Apollinaire Yumba, provincial health minister, said on Monday. The disease also causes a runny nose and cough, difficulty breathing, and anemia.
A medical team has been sent to the Panzi health zone, in Kwango province, to collect samples and carry out analysis to identify the disease, which affects more than three hundred people.
The situation is extremely worrying, since the number of infected continues to increase, reported civil society leader Cephorien Manzanza. “Panzi is a rural health zone, so there is a problem with the supply of medicines,” said Manzanza.
Patients die in their own homes due to lack of treatmentsay Saki and Yumba.
A local epidemiologist stated that women and children are the most affected by the disease. The Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Welfare, cited by the EFE agency, has instead specified that the majority of those who died are “children over 15 years of age.”
A spokesperson for the WHO reported this Tuesday that the UN health agency had been alerted to the presence of the disease last week and that it was working together with the Congolese Ministry of Public Health to conduct further investigations.
Warning from health authorities
To provide a “rapid and effective response” to the outbreak, the Ministry has deployed a rapid intervention team to the affected area.
The mission will try to guarantee the immediate treatment of detected cases, take samples from patients to analysis laboratory and will carry out in-depth investigations in the field to identify the nature of this disease, reports EFE.
The results of laboratory analyzes “will be communicated as soon as they are available and regular updates will be shared with the population and partners,” according to health authorities.
Pending the conclusions of the ongoing investigations, the Ministry urged the population to “remain calm” and “be alert.”
He also asked to strictly respect preventive measures such as avoid mass gatheringsreport suspected cases or unusual deaths to local health authorities and follow basic hygiene, including regular handwashing with soap and water.
The health authorities finally reaffirmed their commitment to protecting the population and working closely with their national and international partners to provide “a rapid and effective response to this health crisis.”
WHO research
“We are working with national authorities to follow up on information about the unknown disease in order to understand the situation, and we have sent a team to the area to collect samples for laboratory investigations,” said Tarik Jasarevic, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO).
In addition to this unknown disease, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is also suffering from an outbreak of mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), with more than 47,000 suspected cases and around a thousand deaths, which led the WHO to declare an international emergency due to its advance, still in force, last August.
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