THE mystery disease ripping through the Democratic Republic of Congo has been identified, the country’s health ministry has said.
The pathogen has claimed at least 143 lives since it began spreading in the southwestern Kwango province, in November.
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“The mystery has finally been solved,” the ministry said in a statement.
“It’s a case of severe malaria in the form of a respiratory illness… and weakened by malnutrition.”
At least 592 people contracted the mosquito-borne disease, which caused fever, headache, cough, runny nose, and body aches, according to reports.
Amid speculation the outbreak could be ‘Disease X’, the World Health Organization (WHO) stressed it was “an undiagnosed disease, not an unknown one.”
Last week, the UN organisation sent a team of epidemiologists and doctors to investigate the outbreak in the Panzi zone, a remote part of the DCR.
Their mission was to collect samples to tackle the region’s severe lack of testing facilities.
Initial rapid tests came back positive for malaria in at least 10 cases, but further confirmation was needed to verify the results.
Malaria is a serious infection spread by mozzie bites.
Though it isn’t found in the UK, Brits are at risk of getting it when jetting off to tropical spots it’s commonly found in – such as Central and South America and parts of Asia and Africa.
The potentially fatal disease can be almost completely avoided by taking malaria prevention tablets when appropriate.
Anti-malaria medicine from the WHO is being distributed in Panzi’s hospital and health centres, provincial health minister Apollinaire Yumba, told Reuters.
A WHO spokesperson said more health kits for moderate and critical cases were due to arrive today (Wednesday).
Most of the cases and deaths are in children under 14, according to national health authorities.
“Respiratory distress was noted in some children and some other people who died,” Congolese Minister of Health Roger Kamba said earlier this month.
He said some patients were anaemic, which was the cause of some of the deaths linked to the disease.
A doctor at Panzi Hospital told Al Jazeera last week that the facility was not sufficiently equipped to deal with the outbreak.
Malaria still kills almost 600,000 people a year globally, and 12 per cent of those deaths occur in the DRC– making it the country’s leading cause of death.
Symptoms of malaria
Malaria is a serious infection spread by mosquitoes.
If it’s not diagnosed and treated quickly, you can die from it.
Malaria is caused by being bitten by an infected mosquito and it can take just one bite to get it.
It can be hard to spot, but symptoms include:
- A high temperature, sweats and chills
- Headaches and feeling confused
- Feeling very tired and sleepy (especially in children)
- Feeling and being sick, tummy pain and diarrhoea
- Loss of appetite
- Muscle pains
- Yellow skin or whites of the eyes
- A sore throat, cough and difficulty breathing
These symptoms usually appear between seven and 18 days after you’ve been bitten by an infected mosquito.
But sometimes you may not have symptoms for months after travel, and rarely years.
Ask for an urgent GP appointment or call NHS 111 if you have travelled to a country where malaria is found and have malaria symptoms.
The infection is very common in certain parts of the world, including:
- Large areas of Africa and Asia
- Central and South America
- Dominican Republic and Haiti
- parts of the Middle East
- Some Pacific islands
Malaria is not found in the UK and you can’t catch it from another person.
Source: NHS
