WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Since late October, a mysterious flu-like illness, dubbed Disease X, has infected over 400 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, prompting the World Health Organization to dispatch a rapid response team for investigation.
'First diagnostics are leading us to think it is a respiratory disease,' Jean Kaseya, the head of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said. 'But we need to wait for the laboratory results.'
The illness, causing symptoms like fever, headache, cough, runny nose, and body aches, has claimed atleast 31 people, mostly children under the age of five years old, who were severely malnourished.
'We don't know whether the anaemia is caused by the disease or whether the disease occurs in addition to anaemia, for example due to malnutrition,' Congolese Health Minister Roger Kamba said as at least 10 of those infected died of severe anaemia.
Notably, the exact number of deaths is difficult to determine as most of the infected people suffered from severe malnutrition and died outside health facilities. Moreover, the outbreak is centered in a remote rural area of Kwango province, which is not easily accessible due to poor road conditions.
'These challenges, coupled with limited diagnostics in the region, have delayed the identification of the underlying cause,' the WHO said.
'Teams are collecting samples for laboratory testing, providing a more detailed clinical characterisation of the detected cases, investigating the transmission dynamics, and actively searching for additional cases, both within health facilities and at the community level.'
Once testing is done, detailed research is required to determine the exact nature of the disease.
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