Deaths in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from an as-yet unidentified disease are continuing to rise. So far there have been 71 confirmed fatalities, with 27 recorded in hospitals and 44 in communities in the southern province of Kwango. The World Health Organization (WHO) has sent a team of experts to the field to collect samples and conduct laboratory tests to try to identify the pathogen responsible.
The results of testing should be available either later today or tomorrow, Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a press conference earlier today. “Initial diagnoses lead us to think it is a respiratory disease, but we have to wait for laboratory results.” Of the hospitalized patients, 17 died due to respiratory problems. Kaseya stressed that there are many aspects still unknown about the disease, including whether it is contagious and how it is transmitted. About 380 cases are thought to have been identified so far, with nearly half involving children under 5.
People infected with the mystery disease present with flu-like symptoms, such as coughing, vomiting, “high fever and severe headaches,” Remy Saki, deputy governor of Kwango province, and Apollinaire Yumba, the DRC’s provincial minister of health, told Reuters. Authorities are urging citizens to exercise caution and avoid contact with dead bodies to avoid potential contagion. The number of infected people, however, continues to rise, as does the alert level.
This area of the DRC is highly fragile from a health perspective, with 40 percent of residents suffering from malnutrition, and access to medical care being difficult for many, with medicines in short supply. This new outbreak is coinciding with the DRC grappling with an epidemic of mpox, which the WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern in August.
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.