World

DR Congo mystery illness is 'severe form of malaria'

By AAP Newswire

Dec 18, 2024

The World Health Organisation says more health kits for malaria are being sent to Kwango province. -AP

Democratic Republic of Congo's health ministry says a previously unidentified disease circulating in the southwestern Kwango province is a severe form of malaria.

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Earlier this month, local authorities said the disease had killed 143 people in the country's Panzi health zone in November.

The symptoms of the disease are fever, headache, cough, runny nose and body aches.

"The mystery has finally been solved. It's a case of severe malaria in the form of a respiratory illness," the health ministry said in a statement, adding malnutrition in the area had weakened the local population, leaving them more vulnerable to disease.

The statement also said that 592 cases had been reported since October, with a fatality rate of 6.2 per cent.

Provincial health minister Apollinaire Yumba told Reuters that anti-malaria medicine provided by the World Health Organisation was being distributed in the main hospital and health centres in the Panzi health zone.

A WHO spokesperson said more health kits for moderate and critical cases were due to arrive on Wednesday.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week that 10 early samples from patients in DR Congo suffering from a mystery illness had tested positive for malaria but that he had not not ruled out the possibility that they suffered from other concurrent diseases.