Malaria is the official cause of a flu-like mysterious illness in Congo

A mysterious disease found in a remote part of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been officially identified as a severe form of malaria. The disease has sickened nearly 600 people, mostly children, and killed 143.

Reuters reports that the DRC Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that a previously unidentified disease – sometimes referred to in the media as “Disease “The mystery has finally been solved. It is a case of severe malaria in the form of a respiratory disease,” the Ministry of Health said.

This reflects preliminary results of testing released last week, where of 12 initial samples collected from people with the then-mystery disease, 10 tested positive for malaria. Local authorities said the outbreak had already occurred 143 people killed with 592 cases reported to date. The increase in cases started in October and has mainly affected children under the age of 14, with around 64% of all reported cases involving infants and toddlers under the age of five.

Malaria is endemic in the DRC. The Plasmodium parasite is mainly transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. People with malaria usually feel very ill with high fever and chills. The main symptoms reported in this particular outbreak are similar to those of the flu, with patients experiencing headaches, coughing and shortness of breath. “Difficulty breathingAccording to the World Health Organization, this is a common respiratory symptom in severe cases of malaria. Doctors also see patients with acute anemia, which can be associated with malarial diseases.

Based on the range of symptoms observed, the WHO said earlier this month – before today’s official diagnosis – that it is investigating a possible link with diseases such as COVID, flu, measles and malaria.

The concern worldwide had been that the previously unknown disease might be a new or mutated respiratory viral disease of some sort. But identifying malaria as the culprit should allay fears of a broader epidemic. The way malaria is transmitted, through mosquito bites, limits its ability to spread quickly and widely compared to airborne viruses.

It is generally not known that malaria has a particularly high mortality rate. Even in severe cases this is usually the case less than 2%. It is possible that the fact that many of the infected people are “weakened by malnutrition” contributes to the higher mortality rate in the current situation in the DRC. Panzi Health Zone in Kwango Province is a remote area of ​​the country suffering from high levels of malnutrition. About 40% of the population is malnourished. There is also low vaccination coverage in the region, leaving children vulnerable to a range of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles.

During his media briefing last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said discussed the then-unidentified disease that struck parts of the DRC. He noted the lack of adequate medical resources and the fact that the country is already in the grip of a particularly virulent variant (clade I) of the mpox disease, with 21,000 suspected cases and more than 700 deaths.

WHO has dispatched rapid response teams to assist local health authorities in treating patients, collecting blood samples for laboratory testing, providing more detailed clinical characterization of the detected cases and further investigating transmission dynamics.