9 Dec 2024 • The World Health Organization has sent a team to study a mystery illness in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that local authorities say has killed at least 71 people.

“First diagnostics are leading us to think it is a respiratory disease,” Jean Kaseya, head of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters.

Symptoms of the illness include headache, cough, fever, breathing difficulties and anaemia. Until laboratory test results are received, the cause is unclear. The country’s health system was already overstretched, and malnutrition is as high as 40% in the countryside, which is driving up the number of deaths from the mystery illness.

A respiratory pathogen such as Influenza or COVID-19 is being investigated as a possible cause, as well as malaria, measles and others.

WHO will share more information about efforts to identify the disease as soon as available.

Source: WHO | Read Full Story