NEWS- The Provincial Minister of Health Dr Apollinaire Yumba has revealed that the previously mysterious unidentified disease circulating in the southwestern Kwango Province in Democratic Republic of Congo’s is a severe form of malaria.
Earlier this month, local authorities said the disease had killed 143 people in the country’s Panzi Health Zone in November alone and the symptoms of the disease are fever, headache, cough, runny nose and body aches.
The Health Ministry has since issued a statement adding that malnutrition in the area had weakened the local population, leaving them more vulnerable to disease.
“The mystery has finally been solved. It’s a case of severe malaria in the form of a respiratory illness,” the Ministry of Health statement indicated.
The statement also said that 592 cases had been reported since October, with a fatality rate of 6.2%, and the Provincial Health Minister said that anti-malaria medicine provided by the World Health Organization was being distributed in the main hospital and health centers in the Panzi Health Zone as more health kits for moderate and critical cases were due to arrive today.
World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week that 10 early samples from patients in Democratic Republic of Congo suffering from a mystery illness had tested positive for malaria, but that he had not ruled out the possibility that they suffered from other concurrent diseases.
Medical Doctors had urged urgent action on Democratic Republic of Congo government over the unidentified disease outbreak of a mystery flu-like disease that killed dozens in the south of the country.
