A mysterious disease has killed dozens of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo since mid-November. Now health officials are scrambling to identify the cause and contain its spread.
DRC officials appear to have first informed the media about the possible outbreak over the weekend, which may have killed as many as 143 people so far. Officials have begun investigating and are advising residents to practice good hygiene and avoid touching the dead. Little is known about the potential disease at this time, although victims have experienced flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache and cough, as well as anemia, before dying.
The outbreak appears to be centered in the Panzi health zone in Kwango province, located in southwestern Congo. Deaths related to the outbreak were recorded between November 10 and 25 so far, although the first reports of illness may have started as late as October. There have been varying reports on the number of related deaths. Provincial Deputy Governor Rémy Saki he said The Associated Press on Tuesday that between 67 and 143 people are believed to have died; on Wednesday, the Minister of Health, Samuel Kamba Roger he stated that there have been 79 deaths, while more than 350 people have been sick in total.
“A team of epidemiological experts in the region is expected to take samples and identify the problem,” Saki told the AP.
Given the mostly non-specific symptoms associated with these deaths, there are many potential culprits for the outbreak, including known diseases previously seen in the region such as Ebola or mpox (formerly monkey pox). It is also possible that these deaths are caused by more than one source, which could include non-infectious causes such as chemical contamination of food or water.
And there is, of course, the remote but terrifying possibility that behind it is a new or unexpected emerging pathogen, such as a strain of bird flu which has adapted to spread easily between people. A potentially worrying aspect is that most of the deaths have occurred among children over 15, according to health authorities, which is a more unusual distribution for an infectious disease (infections in general these days tend to be more dangerous for the very young or the elderly). At this point, however, there are more questions than answers.
The vast majority of the time, outbreaks that initially seem mysterious ultimately trace back to known threats (although there were infamously once as recently as late 2019 when it wasn’t). But even if the cause of this cluster is more mundane, the large number of casualties observed over a short period of time is still very concerning and requires immediate action to reduce it.
The World Health Organization has been made aware of the situation and has established a team on the ground working with local officials to discover the identity of the outbreak, according to the AP. Meanwhile, officials have told area residents to report any strange deaths, avoid mass gatherings and not handle any corpses without the intervention of trained medical professionals.
