Kinshasa,Congo
In the past five weeks, more than 50 people have died after contracting a mysterious illness in two distant villages in Congo’s Equateur province. Nearly half of them have died within hours after falling sick.
The outbreaks, which began in late January include 419 cases and 53 deaths. Health officials still do not know the cause, or whether the cases in the two villages, which are separated by more than 190 kilometers are related.
It is also unclear as to how the diseases are spreading, including whether they are spreading between people.
The first victims in one of the villages were children who ate a bat and died within 48 hours, the Africa office of the World Health Organisation said this week. More infections were found in the other village where some of the patients have malaria. The first outbreak began in the village of Boloko after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours. More than two weeks later a second larger outbreak was recorded in the village of Bomate, where more than 400 people have been reported to have fallen ill.
According to WHO Africa, no links have been established between the cases in the two villages. They also stated that the quick progression from sickness to death in Boloko is a key concern, along with the high number of deaths in Bomate.
Congo’s Ministry of Health said that about 80% of the patients share similar symptoms including fever, chills, body aches and diarrhea.
Congo’s government said that experts have been sent to the villages since 14 February mainly to investigate the cases and help slow the spread.
There have been long concerns about diseases jumping from animals to humans in places where wild animals are popularly eaten. The number of such outbreaks in Africa has surged by more than 60% in the last decade, the WHO said in 2022.
After the second outbreak of the mystery disease began in the village of Bomate on 9 February, samples from 13 cases were sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Congo’s Capital, Kinshasa, for testing. All samples were negative for common hemorrhagic fever diseases, although some tested positive for malaria.
Last year, another mystery flu-like illness that killed dozens of people in another part of Congo was determined likely to be malaria.
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