The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is on “maximum alert” in the face of the emergence of an unknown disease which has killed more than 70 people, announced Thursday the Minister of Public Health, Roger Kamba. The results to determine this mysterious disease are expected this Friday or Saturday, according to the management of the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
KINSHASA, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) — The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is on “high alert” over the emergence of an unknown disease that has killed more than 70 people, the Minister of Public Health announced Thursday , Roger Kamba. The results to determine this mysterious disease are expected this Friday or Saturday, according to the management of the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
MAXIMUM ALERT
This disease of “still unknown origin” reported in the Panzi area in the province of Kwango (southwest), which has been described as an “epidemic”, has affected 382 people since October 2024, who have presented symptoms which “look like the flu,” he said.
According to him, some 40% of cases concern children. The minister also highlighted that 61% of children in Kwango province suffer from malnutrition, which could worsen the effects of this disease.
Seventy-one deaths have already been reported, namely 27 deaths in healthcare facilities and 44 others in communities, Mr. Kamba said, adding that around 300 people had recovered.
“We are on maximum alert. We consider that this is a level of epidemic that we must monitor as closely as possible,” assured Mr. Kamba.
“We don’t know if we are dealing with a viral disease or a bacterial disease,” explained Dieudonné Mwamba, director general of the DRC National Institute of Public Health during an Africa CDC online press briefing.
EXPECTED RESULTS
“We do not even know the mode of transmission,” Jean Kaseya, director of the Africa CDC, noted Thursday during the online press briefing, noting that the results to confirm the characteristics of this disease are expected this Friday or Saturday.
Specialized intervention teams were sent to the field to identify the nature of this disease, according to him. “We are still waiting for the first results” to determine the cause and treatments.
“We are more or less in the assertion that it is respiratory,” added the minister. According to him, based on this hypothesis, the emergence of this disease coincides with the seasonal flu which begins from October to March with a peak in December.
Roger Kamba also cited the hypothesis of COVID-19, whose mortality rate is lower than that reported in Kwango. “The observed mortality rates, around 7.8%, do not correspond to the profile of COVID-19, but we remain cautious in our analyses,” he said.
“These are hypotheses while waiting for the results of the samples”, the operations of which were prevented by the poor medical and logistical conditions on the ground, recognized the minister.
“We received, at the end of last week, a public health alert from the Panzi health zone, located approximately 417 km from Kenge, in a remote region with impassable roads, especially during this rainy season” , he explained.
However, according to the provincial Minister of Health, Apollinaire Yumba, quoted Thursday by local media, 131 deaths have been recorded since November 10 “to date”.
Mr Kamba denied any “fight over numbers”. “There are a lot of figures that have been announced several times. We have not rushed to communicate them because we cannot communicate on rumors,” he insisted.
