Mystery solved. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the enigma of the mysterious disease that put health authorities on high alert almost solved. It was feared that it was a new respiratory infection that could easily spread across the planet like Covid did.
The answer for the first world is reassuring, but it is not for a country that is continually in crisis. Analysis of the 891 reported cases suggests that they are due to a combination of common viral respiratory infections such as influenza and another disease well known in the area such as malaria, and all aggravated by acute malnutrition of the population. That is why it has disproportionately affected children under five years of age.
Although the WHO is still investigating, it seems to rule out that it is a new disease. “The diagnosis highlights the serious burden of common infectious diseases in a context of vulnerability and food insecurity,” he laments in his latest statement on the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The United Nations health agency reminds that severe acute malnutrition is a potentially fatal condition that requires medical treatment. «Illness and malnutrition combine to aggravate each other. The area has low systematic vaccination coverage. “There is also very limited access to quality diagnosis and case management, as well as lack of supplies and transportation, shortages of health personnel in the area, and geographic barriers to accessing health care.” The situation will not improve soon because an increase in malaria and respiratory viruses is expected with the start of the rainy season.”
The most affected area is Panzi, in Kwango province. Panzi is a rural community located more than 700 kilometers from the capital, Kinshasa, and where road access is very difficult, even more so during the rainy season. The alert began on October 25, after detecting an increase in deaths, especially in children with flu-like symptoms: fever, cough, runny nose, joint pain, difficulty breathing, body weakness, as well as anemia.
Multidisciplinary rapid response teams were deployed to investigate the event and reinforce the response that is still working in the area to address health needs.
The WHO list
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been warning for years of the arrival of disease “X”, a phantom pathogen that could emerge at any time and spread rapidly throughout the planet. A new infection that could appear like AIDS, Covid or monkeypox did.
Therefore, what was happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was worrying. Now it is a problem only on the African continent.
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