Unknown ‘flu-like’ disease ‘targeting women & children’ kills 143 people in just TWO WEEKS as WHO launches urgent probe
AN UNKNOWN "flu-like" disease targeting women and children has killed 143 within two weeks.
Those infected in Congo have suffered from symptoms including high fever and severe headaches with the World Health Organisation launching an urgent probe.
Deaths are being recorded in Kwango province, situated in the Southwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and on its border with Angola.
Deputy governor of the province Remy Saki and its minister of health Apollinaire Yumba say medical teams have been sent to collect samples and carry out an analysis in order to identify the disease.
But other officials have warned that the situation is "extremely worrying" and that the death toll continues to rise.
On November 25, up to 143 deaths had been reported from the disease in just two weeks as medical experts scramble to find out what it is.
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Due to a lack of treatment, those infected with the unknown illness are reportedly tragically dying in their own homes.
And a local epidemiologist said that women and children were the most seriously affected by the disease.
Health officials are yet to report on results from the samples and tests, and it is unclear whether patients have tested negative for other common diseases.
No data has been released on the number of patients that are suspected to have been infected or hospitalised in the horrific outbreak.
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A WHO spokesperson said on Tuesday the UN health agency had been alerted to the presence of the disease last week.
It also said it was working alongside DRC's public health ministry to further investigate.
Civil society leader Cephorien Manzanza said: "The situation is extremely worrying as the number of infected people continues to rise.
"Panzi is a rural health zone, so there is a problem with the supply of medicines."
The DRC recently had an outbreak of an ultra-deadly strain of mpox which was declared by WHO as a global public health emergency.
The highly contagious disease killed at least 500 people and infected 13,700 during an initial outbreak this year.
The virus - formally known as monkeypox - spread to 12 other countries in Africa, and scientists were concerned in August about how fast a new variant of the disease is spreading and its high fatality rate.
A previous mpox public health emergency, declared in 2022, was caused by the relatively mild version of the virus.
However, this time a far more deadly variant surged.
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And in 2019 a deadly Ebola epidemic in Congo that killed more than 1,600 people was declared an international health emergency.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed the crisis at the time after a case of the virus was found in a city of 2million people.
