Africa CDC: Cause of Congo’s strange disease not yet found
Kinsasha, DRC | THE INDEPENDENT | Identifying the germ that has so far caused 32 deaths in health facilities and 44 other deaths in the community in Panzi, a rural district in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo could take longer, the Africa Center for Disease Control (CDC) has said.
While addressing the weekly press conference, Dr Jean Kaseya the Africa CDC Director General said they had not yet found clear information about the cause of the strange disease that is yet to be named saying that teams sent out to collect samples could return next week.
Kaseya says driving from the capital Kinshasa to the affected district takes three days of juggling the poor road network reporting they had received reports that samples earlier collected were poorly preserved and therefore cannot be used.
Africa CDC reports that 527 people were affected by the disease which is being called Disease X by Thursday whereby forty-two percent are children under the age of five. These statistics are worrisome according to Kaseya as one hundred and forty-seven were recorded just this week.
Earlier this week, Prof. Placide Mbala a virologist and an Associate Professor at the University of Kinshasa’s School of Medicine indicated that samples they had collected were of poor quality as some were showing signs that the red blood cells had been destructed, what is scientifically referred to as hemolysis.
Mbala also reported that they had no swabs to use to conduct nasopharyngeal tests on patients who had presented with symptoms, which is why they were yet to identify the exact pathogen causing sickness.
According to the World Health Organisation, the undiagnosed disease presents with symptoms of fever, headache, cough, runny nose and body ache among others, and people started falling sick two months ago.
The organization further says all the severe cases recorded were also severely malnourished. Like Africa CDC, WHO announced early this week that they had deployed teams to investigate the disease but no more information has since been shared.
But, the organization noted in a statement that given the clinical presentation and symptoms reported, and several associated deaths, acute pneumonia, influenza, COVID-19, measles and malaria are being considered as potential causal factors with malnutrition as a contributing factor.
“Malaria is a common disease in this area, and it may be causing or contributing to the cases. Laboratory tests are underway to determine the exact cause. At this stage, it is also possible that more than one disease is contributing to the cases and deaths”, WHO notes.
Information from DRC’s Ministry of Health shows that 96% of all cases experienced a fever and a running nose is the least seen symptom appearing in 57.8% of those affected. The main symptoms associated with death include difficulty in breathing, anaemia, and signs of acute malnutrition.
Based on the current context of the affected area and the broad presentation of symptoms, experts say several suspected diseases need to be ruled out through further investigations and laboratory testing. These include but are not limited to measles, influenza, acute pneumonia (respiratory tract infection), COVID-19, and malaria.
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