Congo is on ‘general alert’ over a flu-like illness that has killed dozens of people

Public health officials in Africa urged caution Thursday as Congo’s health minister said the government was on alert for a flu-like illness that has killed dozens of people in recent weeks.

The head of Africa’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jean Casseja, told reporters that more details about the disease should be known within the next 48 hours, when experts receive results from laboratory samples from infected people.

“The first diagnosis makes us think it’s a respiratory disease,” Kaseya said. “But we have to wait for the lab results.”

“There are so many things we don’t know” about the disease, including whether it’s contagious and how it’s transmitted, Kasey added.

Congolese authorities have so far confirmed 71 deaths, including 27 people who died in hospitals and 44 in the community in southern Kwangju province, Health Minister Roger Kamba said.

“The Congolese government is on general alert for this disease,” Kamba said, without elaborating.

He said that of the victims in hospitals, 10 died from lack of blood transfusion and 17 from breathing problems.

Epidemiological investigation begins

The deaths were recorded between November 10 and 25 in the Panzi Health Zone of Quang Ninh Province. According to the minister, there have been approximately 380 cases, almost half of which were children under the age of five.

The Africa CDC recorded slightly different numbers with 376 cases and 79 deaths. The discrepancy was caused by problems with follow-up and case definition, Kaseya said.

Authorities have said symptoms include fever, headache, cough and anemia. Epidemiological experts are in the region to take samples and investigate the disease, the minister said.

Panzi Health Zone, located about 700 kilometers from the capital Kinshasa, is a remote area of ​​Kwango province, making it difficult to access.

It took two days for the epidemiological experts to arrive there, the minister said. Due to a lack of testing facilities, samples had to be transported more than 500 kilometers to Kikwita, said Diedon Mwamba, head of the National Institute of Public Health.

“The health system in our countryside is quite weak, but the ministry has all the rules for certain types of care, and we are waiting for the first results of the analysis of the samples to calibrate things correctly,” Kaseja said.

Mwamba said Panzi was already a “fragile” area with 40 percent of its population facing malnutrition. It was also hit by a typhoid epidemic two years ago, and is currently seeing a resurgence of seasonal flu across the country.

“We have to take all of this as context,” Mwamba said.

“Care problem,” says resident

Panzi resident Claude Nyongo said his wife and seven-year-old daughter died of the disease.

“We don’t know the cause, but all I noticed was high fever, vomiting… and then death,” Nyong’o told The Associated Press by phone. “Now the authorities are talking to us about the epidemic, but in the meantime there is a care problem (and) people are dying,” he added.

Lucien Lufutu, president of the Kwangju Provincial Civil Society Consultative System based in Panzi, said the local hospital where patients are being treated is under-equipped.

“There is a lack of medicine and medical supplies because the disease is not yet known, most of the population is treated by traditional doctors,” Lufutu told AP.

He also said the disease has hit Catena, another nearby health zone.

Asked about a possible outbreak in other health zones, the minister said he could not say if that was the case, but nothing had been reported.

Congo has already been hit by a possum epidemic, with more than 47,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths suspected in the central African country, according to the World Health Organization.