Update on unidentified illness in Congo:
Today, Congo's Health Ministry held a press conference about an unidentified illness in a remote area of Kwango province. Here's a detailed summary written by our team.
• The outbreak is taking place in very remote area with poor road access, especially now during the rainy season, which makes the investigation more difficult. Communication is also limited.
• There are high levels of malnutrition in this region and healthcare services are limited. This means the population is more vulnerable when they become sick.
• On Friday night, the health ministry received an alert from local health officials about an unidentified illness. A meeting was held on Saturday morning. The first team was sent the next day and had to travel more than 400 kilometers (250 miles). They arrived on early Tuesday after a 2-day trip.
• Based on the initial report from the team, there are currently 382 suspected cases, including 71 deaths. Of those, 27 died at healthcare centers and 44 died at home. The current number of active cases is unclear.
• The illness is characterized by fever, cough, runny nose, headache and body aches. In more severe cases, patients are also suffering from difficulty breathing. "So it really resembles flu symptoms," the health minister said.
• Out of 382 suspected cases, 198 are in children below the age of 5 and 113 are 25 or older. Among the 27 people who died at healthcare centers, 21 are younger than 10.
• Of those who died at healthcare centers, 17 died due to respiratory distress and the other 10 died due to lack of treatment. Those 10 were suffering from severe anemia but blood transfusions were not available.
Health minister: "We don't know if the anemia is caused by the disease or if the disease is occurring in addition to an anemia condition (such as malnutrition), but in any case, 10 of the 27 needed transfusions and they passed away."
• As mentioned, 44 people died at home. "It has not been confirmed by doctors. It's when a family says: 'We lost someone. They also had the same symptoms.' We count that as a case," the official said.
• Health minister: "The team that has arrived is now mapping out the symptoms to better characterize what is happening. They have also taken samples, which need to be taken to the lab in Kikwit. It's a very remote area, so it takes time to get the results and potentially identify the cause."
• Health minister: "We are fairly certain that it is respiratory, because people are dying from respiratory distress. Respiratory distress with an initial presentation that, as I mentioned, resembles flu symptoms."
• The earliest suspected case dates back to later October, which is also the start of the flu season. "Could it be a severe seasonal flu affecting a fragile population with malnutrition, anemia, and other diseases? Or could it be another pathogen? We will know once the results are in," the health minister said.
• Could it be COVID? "The mortality rate, which is around 7.5 to 8 percent (based on deaths at healthcare centers), makes us think it might not be COVID, because COVID doesn't have this level of mortality. However, this is a very fragile population, so it’s also possible that it could be a virus of that type affecting vulnerable people."
• What's the level of concern? "The alert level — I would say we're on maximum alert. This means we consider it a type of epidemic that must be monitored as closely as possible," the minister said.
"Can we expect a large-scale epidemic? I can't answer that question because I don't have a crystal ball to predict what will happen. ... It depends on the diagnosis."
"I can't say yet whether it's waterborne, a bacterial infection, or transmitted through coughing. We need to identify the pathogen first before determining how it spreads."
• Results are expected on Friday or Saturday.