Congo disease, new death in DRC

A man has died from symptoms of haemorrhagic fever in the area of Panzi in Kwandongo province, located approximately 700 km from the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kinshasa, where the outbreak of ‘Congo disease’ was first documented. This information has been reported by Ngashi Ngongo, an official from the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The fatality has prompted health officials to hypothesise that an unidentified virus, rather than a severe form of malaria, is the causative agent of the mysterious epidemic spreading in the Central African country. The national authorities identified malaria as the most probable cause of the epidemic, as more than 80% of infected patients showed positive results for malaria parasites in diagnostic tests. According to the official of the CDC, a total of 592 cases and 37 confirmed deaths have been reported in the Panzi area, representing an increase of 65 cases and five deaths since the previous week. In addition, 44 deaths have been documented in other communities in the DRC, and these are currently under investigation. A team of experts has been deployed by the WHO to collect samples and conduct a detailed inquiry.