Mysterious respiratory illness puts Democratic Republic of Congo on alert

Deaths in the in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, due to an as yet unidentified disease, continue to increase. So far, 71 deaths have been confirmed, with 27 recorded in hospitals and 44 in communities in the southern province of Kwango. The World Health Organization (WHO) sent a team of experts to the field to collect samples and carry out laboratory tests in an attempt to identify the causative pathogen.

Test results should be available later today or tomorrow, Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference earlier in the day. “The initial diagnoses suggest that it is a respiratory illness, but we have to wait for the laboratory results. » Among the hospitalized patients, 17 died from respiratory problems. Kaseya stressed that many aspects of the disease still remain unknown, including whether it is contagious and how it is transmitted. Around 380 cases have reportedly been identified so far, almost half of which involved children under 5 years old.

People infected with the mysterious illness experience flu-like symptoms, such as coughing, vomiting, “high fever and severe headache,” said Rémy Saki, deputy governor of Kwango province, and Apollinaire Yumba, provincial minister of health of the DRC. Reuters. The authorities are urging citizens exercise caution and avoid contact with dead bodies to avoid potential contagion. However, the number of infected people continues to increase, as does the alert level.

This region of the DRC is very fragile from a health point of view, 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 coincides with the DRC grappling with an outbreak of mpox, which the WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern in August.

This story was originally published on WIRED Italy and was translated from Italian.