The European Union is “closely following” the still unknown disease which is raging in the south-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a Commission spokesperson assured Monday, stressing that no similar cases have been reported. has been recorded in Europe.
“Obviously, we are monitoring the situation closely. (…) We are trying to gather the information”, in conjunction with the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), an EU agency, declared this spokesperson Eva Hrncirova to the press in Brussels.
“ECDC experts” are mobilized. “We are also cooperating with the World Health Organization (WHO). The nature of this disease is not yet known. It is prevalent in a fairly remote province, in the southwest” of the DRC “and this complicates a little about the situation,” she stressed.
“The only thing I can say, and it is very important, is that no case of this unknown disease has been reported in Europe,” insisted this spokesperson.
Dozens of deaths in one month
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is on “high alert” after the detection of a mysterious disease which has already killed dozens in just over a month according to the latest estimates, said the Minister of Health THURSDAY.
The phenomenon described by health authorities as “an unknown public health event” is currently located in the Panzi region, some 700 km from Kinshasa. The first cases were detected at the end of October.
In the remote region of Panzi, which is difficult to access and where health infrastructure is almost non-existent, the population lives in general precariousness, suffering from a lack of access to drinking water and medicine.
According to the first available data, the mysterious illness particularly affects the youngest, with 40% of cases involving children under five years old. The symptoms are similar to those of the flu: fever, cough and headache.
The DRC has already been hit hard in recent months by the mpox virus with more than 1,000 deaths. Among the poorest on the planet, the country has recently seen the number of cases of this disease – formerly called monkeypox – decline slightly.
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