KINSHASA, Congo — Congo’s health minister said Thursday the government is on alert over a mystery flu-like disease that in recent weeks killed dozens of people.
Authorities have so far confirmed 71 deaths, including 27 people who died in hospitals and 44 in the community in the southern Kwango province, health minister Roger Kamba said.
“The Congolese government is on general alert regarding this disease,” Kamba said, without providing more details.
Of the victims at the hospitals, 10 died due to lack of blood transfusion and 17 as a result of respiratory problems, he said.
The deaths were recorded between Nov. 10 and Nov. 25 in the Panzi health zone of Kwango province. There were around 380 cases, almost half of which were children under the age of five, according to the minister.
Authorities have said that symptoms include fever, headache, cough and anemia. Epidemiological experts are in the region to take samples and investigate the disease, the minister said.
“The disease resembles a respiratory disease but it is difficult to talk about how it is transmitted before the results of the analysis of the collected samples,” Kamba added.
The Panzi health zone, located around 435 miles (700 kilometers), from the capital Kinshasa, is a remote area of the Kwango province, making it hard to access. The epidemiological experts took two days to arrive there, the minister said.
“The health system is quite weak in our rural areas, but for certain types of care, the ministry has all the provisions, and we are waiting for the first results of the sample analysis to properly calibrate things,” he added.
A Panzi resident, Claude Niongo, said his wife and seven-year-old daughter died from the disease.
“We do not know the cause but I only noticed high fevers, vomiting… and then death,” Niongo told The Associated Press over the phone. “Now, the authorities are talking to us about an epidemic but in the meantime, there is a problem of care (and) people are dying,” he added.
Lucien Lufutu, president of the civil society consultation framework of the Kwango province, who is in Panzi, said the local hospital where patients are treated is underequipped.
“There is a lack of medicines and medical supplies, since the disease is not yet known, most of the population is treated by traditional practitioners,” Lufutu told the AP.
He also said the disease just affected Katenda, another nearby health zone.
When asked about a potential outbreak in other health zones, the minister said he could not tell if that was the case but that nothing was reported.
Congo is already plagued by the mpox epidemic, with more than 47,000 suspected cases and over 1,000 suspected deaths from the disease in the Central African country, according to the World Health Organization.
“At the current stage, we cannot speak of a large-scale epidemic, we must wait for the results of the samples taken,” health minister Kamba said regarding the mystery flu-like disease.
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