“Of the 12 samples taken, nine were positive for malaria, but these samples were not of very good quality, so we are continuing the research to find out if this is an epidemic,” explained to the Associated Press Doctor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director general of the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa.
“But it is very likely that it is malaria, because most of the victims are children,” he added.
On Tuesday, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said that most of the samples tested positive for malaria, but it was possible that multiple diseases were involved. He said more samples would be collected and tested.
In recent weeks, 416 cases of the mysterious disease have been reported and 31 deaths have been recorded in hospitals, the WHO director-general said. Congolese Health Minister Roger Kamba announced last week that 44 more deaths had occurred in the community.
Most cases and deaths are among children under 14 in the remote Panzi health zone in western Kwango province, according to WHO.
Ezekiel Kasongo, a resident of Panzi, said his 9-year-old son had just been released from hospital after falling ill two weeks ago.
“He had a high fever, headache and was very weak,” Kasongo told the Associated Press. “We were very worried because of the number of deaths, especially among children, but thank God he made it through.”
Symptoms include fever, headache, cough and anemia. Experts from the National Rapid Response Team and WHO were in Panzi last week to collect samples and investigate.
The Panzi health zone, about 700 kilometers from the capital, Kinshasa, is difficult to access. The experts took two days to arrive, according to the Congolese Minister of Health.
Due to a lack of local testing capacity, the samples had to be transported to Kikwit, more than 500 kilometers away, the director of the National Institute of Public Health, Dieudonné Mwamba, said last week.
Panzi was hit by an outbreak of typhoid fever two years ago, and there is currently a resurgence of seasonal flu across the country, Mwamba added.
The region also experiences high levels of malnutrition and low immunization coverage, leaving children vulnerable to a range of diseases, including malaria, the WHO director said on Tuesday.
