A disease of unknown origin is affecting western DRC, and its symptoms have been detected in 382 people. The first cases were spotted on October 24.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is under tension after the detection of a mysterious disease which has already killed 131 people in just over a month, according to the new report communicated Thursday by the Minister of Health of the Congolese province of Kwango, Apollinaire Yumba.
“We are on maximum alert, we consider that this is a level of epidemic that we must monitor”added the Congolese Minister of Health, Samuel-Roger Kamba, during a press conference in the capital Kinshasa. Samples have been taken from sick patients which must now be analyzed in the laboratory, and the results will be known in the next 24 to 48 hours. Symptoms were detected in 382 people.
Remote Panzi region affected
The phenomenon described by health authorities as “an unknown public health event” is currently located in the Panzi region, some 700 km southeast of Kinshasa. The first cases were detected on October 24. “In health centers, we recorded 27 deaths. And with the assessment carried out by the head doctor of the zone in the community, we also reported 44 deaths.specified the minister, adding however that on the latter, “we cannot say that it is immediately linked to the phenomenon because there are other possible causes”.
In the remote region of Panzi, difficult to access via an impassable road 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. The malnutrition rate (61%) is among the highest in the country, underlined the minister, recalling that the region already experienced a serious epidemic of typhoid fever two years ago.
-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.
Disease affecting the respiratory system
Is it a seasonal flu that hits a fragile population harder? Is this a new virus? Specialists have already concluded that it is a disease affecting the respiratory system but excluded covid. Epidemiologists were sent to the site to take samples.
“We don’t know if we are dealing with a viral disease or a bacterial disease”explained Dieudonné Mwamba, director general of the National Institute of Public Health of the DRC during an online press briefing of the African Union health agency (Africa CDC). “We don’t even know the mode of transmission”noted Jean Kaseya, director of the Africa CDC.
Among the 27 deaths that occurred in health centers, 17 people died after falling into respiratory distress, said the Congolese Minister of Health. Ten died from lack of transfusion in a state of severe anemia. The DRC has already been hit hard in recent months by the mpox virus with more than 1,000 deaths. One of the poorest countries on the planet has recently seen the number of cases of the disease – formerly called monkeypox – decline slightly.
