Deadly outbreak in the Congo The mysterious "Disease X" in 5 points
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, dozens of people, including many children under the age of five, are dying from a new disease. The government is working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to find the causes.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Since the end of October 2024, hundreds have fallen ill with the mysterious "disease X" in the province of Kwango in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Children under the age of five are particularly affected.
- The WHO spoke of 31 deaths, but the local authorities reported more than 130 deaths.
- The exact causes are still being investigated.
Since the end of October 2024, a striking number of people have died in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This was officially announced by the Congolese government on 4 December. The reason is a new disease. Those affected are suffering from flu-like symptoms.
These are the five most important things you need to know about the mysterious "Disease X":
Outbreak and first report
The first case of the disease was registered on October 24 in the remote region of Panzi in the province of Kwango in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, the Congolese Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) did not receive an alert until a week later.
The reason for this is that the Panzi region is very remote. It normally takes more than two days to get there from the capital Kinshasa, 700 kilometers away. It is currently the rainy season, which makes the journey even longer.
There are also frequent armed conflicts with roving gangs in this region, making travel very difficult and restrictive. The mobile phone network is patchy.
As a result, information about disease outbreaks is slow to get out of the region - and specialist staff, diagnostic equipment and medicines are also slow to get in.
Symptoms and progression
The disease is described as "mysterious" because it is not yet known exactly what causes it.
People suffering from the mysterious "disease X" have flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, headache and aching limbs, breathing problems and anemia.
Children under the age of five are particularly affected. Many of those infected were also severely malnourished, which can make any infection potentially life-threatening.
Current figures
A total of 527 cases of the disease have been recorded in Congo since the end of October. This includes 225 children up to the age of five. The WHO spoke of 31 deaths, but the local authorities spoke of more than 130 deaths. The numbers are rising from day to day.
In recent days, the African health authority African CDC and the WHO have sent teams of experts to the region, equipped with satellite phones, medicines and rapid tests for known pathogens such as influenza, malaria and Sars-CoV-2, among other things.
Samples were also taken from a few sick people. The samples are now being analyzed in a biomedical laboratory in Kinshasa.
What does malaria have to do with the disease?
Dieudonné Mwamba, Director of the Institute of National Health in Kinshasa, has now confirmed that malaria was found in a total of ten out of twelve samples examined.
However, whether the patients were suffering exclusively from malaria or also from a previously unknown disease could only be determined after further investigations.
The African health authority CDC Africa explained that the samples from the affected area in Panzi were in poor condition. Therefore, no further information is yet available. CDC Director General Jean Kaseya said he was in contact with Placide Mbala, the head of the Institute of Epidemiology in Congo's capital Kinshasa.
According to Mbala, no swabs from the noses and throats of potentially infected people have been taken locally. In a message, he explained: "We are still doing some preliminary analysis, but we will wait for new samples to determine what is going on and possibly identify the pathogen."
A multidisciplinary team from the Congolese health authorities, the CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) is on the way to obtain new samples, according to Kaseya. He continues: "At the moment, we are not making any official statements about this disease."
Challenges in the diagnosis
Several factors are making it difficult to identify the cause of the disease. The remote location of the Panzi region, poor healthcare and the catastrophic nutritional status of the population pose major challenges. In addition, the infrastructure is so inadequate that it takes more than two days to get from the capital Kinshasa to the affected area.
The fact that the Mpox outbreak in Congo-Kinshasa has continued unabated for months shows just how poor the diagnostic options are overall. Although there have been more than 48,000 suspected cases this year, only just over 1,200 of these have been confirmed by laboratory tests.
The example of China shows that an accumulation of cases of respiratory diseases is not necessarily caused by a new pathogen. In the fall of 2023, many patients in several cities complained of flu-like symptoms. Precise laboratory analyses revealed that both the RS virus and mycoplasma bacteria were responsible.