In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a mysterious disease has again demanded dozens of fatalities. It was only last year that a fatal, enigmatic disease in the African country caused alert.
The outbreak follows a similar event at the end of 2024, which was referred to as “Disease X” before the experts of the World Health Organization (WHO) could identify as a cocktail of various well -known acute airway disorders complicated by malaria and malnutrition.
These new outbreaks can have comparable causes, but it will probably take some time for the exact cause. However, it is also not impossible that a new, still unknown virus is responsible for disease, speculates Eric Liang Feigl-Things, an American health scientist who currently works as an epidemiologist and head of the COVID task force at the New England Complex Systems Institute (see Tweet below).
To date, the outbreak of disease has resulted in official information at least 60 people dead. Half of the rehearsals became positive for malaria (which is endemic in Congo, note), but doctors do not believe that malaria is responsible for death.
Bleeding, chills, fever …
So far, a total of 1096 diseases and 60 deaths have been found. The patients suffered fever, headache, shivers, sweating, neck stiffness, multiple joint pain, muscle pain, a running or bleeding nose, cough, vomiting and diarrhea.
The first laboratory analyzes showed a negative finding for the Ebola and Marburg virus disease. Further tests must be performed on meningitis. Food, water and environmental samples are also analyzed to determine whether contamination could be available.
“Tests are never 100 % accurate, and it is likely that we can prove a pathogen with raised tests in some of these samples,” explains Michael Head, the epidemiologist at the University of Southampton in Great -Britain.
If a previously unknown pathogen is identified as the cause, the health authorities should increase the measures to contain the spread of the disease and determine the transmission method.
Crisis team in province -éqateu
In response to the accumulation of mysterious diseases, a National Crisis Reaction Team, which also belongs to the WHO health expert, was sent to the province of ÉquATEU to view the situation closer and determine whether there is an unusual pattern.
The first victims were children who had eaten a bat and died within 48 hours, the African office of the WHO recently said. It is unclear how the disease spreads and whether it is transferable from person to person is said.
It was not until the end of last year that there had been more than 400 mysterious diseases – called “disease X” – in a remote region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 140 people died. In December 2024, the Ministry of Health of the State reported that according to the authorities it was a serious form of malaria.
“The puzzle was finally solved,” said it was serious malaria in the form of an airway condition. Also the malnutrition of the sick games. Usually children were hit, especially younger than five years old.
Source: Krone
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