Children under 5 at risk of ‘Disease X’ warn WHO after 406 fall ill with mysterious flu & major airport ups screenings 

‘Disease X’ is a strange ailment that is more likely to affect children under five in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As airports scramble to stop the spread, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Monday that 406 people have been afflicted with the flu-like virus in recent weeks.

In the isolated area of Panzi, the unidentified pathogen is spreading and is thought to have killed at least 31 people since October.

The WHO’s reported death toll is different from earlier projections. According to early reports, there were between 71 and 143 fatalities.

Hong Kong imposed stricter airport screenings for travelers arriving from Addis Ababa and Johannesburg late Thursday.

Officials in Japan are advising people to avoid making needless journeys to the impacted area.

Experts have determined that the illness affects the respiratory system after ruling out coronavirus.

According to WHO, viruses like influenza, malaria, measles, and others are being looked into as potential causes.

The illness, whose etiology is unknown, manifests as fever, headache, cough, runny nose, and body aches.

According to the UN health agency, all severe cases included people who were extremely malnourished, with children under five making up the majority of the cases.

Individuals under the age of 14 have been found to account for more than 64% of all cases.

Additionally, children under the age of five have been involved in almost 53% of all occurrences.

youngsters have also been the victims of the majority of deaths; youngsters under the age of five have been responsible for half of all deaths.

“The area is rural and remote, and the ongoing rainy season has made access even harder,” they said.

They went on to say that attempts to identify the underlying reason have been delayed by the region’s lack of diagnostic resources.

‘High fevers, vomiting…and then death’

On its X account and in an online news briefing on Thursday, the Africa’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seems to call the virus ‘Disease X’.

The WHO uses the name to refer to a hypothetical virus with the potential to spread like wildfire.

According to Dieudonne Mwamba, director general of the National Public Health Institute, it is thought to be airborne and spread by tiny droplets while breathing or speech.

He continued: “We don’t know if we are dealing with a viral disease or a bacterial disease.”

According to Claude Niongo, a native of Panzi, the illness claimed the lives of his wife and daughter, who was seven years old.

Niongo told The Associated Press, “I only noticed high fevers, vomiting…and then death.” The cause is unknown.

Our top priority is to effectively support the impacted families and communities, stated Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.

“All efforts are underway to identify the cause of the illness, understand its modes of transmission and ensure appropriate response as swiftly as possible.”

Road access to the area is challenging, and there is a dearth of medical facilities.

Additionally, residents lack access to medicine and potable water.

According to Congo’s health minister Roger Kamba, the region has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the nation, with just over 60% of the population, particularly children, suffering from it.

According to him, there was a severe typhoid fever outbreak in the area two years prior.

Additionally, the DRC is also dealing with an outbreak of clade 1b, a severe new form of mpox.

The virus has infected 20,000 people and killed over 650 since the year began.

Should we be worried?

Although there is still much to learn about this, Prof. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, stated that the infection probably has a far lower death rate than these numbers would imply because it is difficult to detect minor diseases in Central Africa.

With symptoms including fever, headache, congestion in the nose, coughing, dyspnea, and anemia, the sickness seems to be mostly a respiratory infection.

What is probably causing this, which I am not entirely sure of, is the major question.

“The mention of anaemia makes me think ofmycoplasma pneumoniabut it is too early to make a definite diagnosis until further analyses are reported.”

The illness, commonly referred to as “white lung syndrome,” caused a sharp increase in pediatric cases in Northern China last winter.

In a terrifying echo of the lockdown procedures implemented during the epidemic, the infections cause masks and social isolation to resurface.

Pneumonia cases have also increased in Singapore, the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland.

“Based on the symptoms and descriptions of who is affected the most, I would say that there are multiple, potential infectious causes for this unidentified illness cluster, as well as some possible non-infectious causes,” stated Dr. Jake Dunning, senior research fellow and infectious diseases consultant at the University of Oxford’s Pandemic Sciences Institute.

“Speculating about causes for unidentified illness events which happen periodically, especially in African countries is not helpful and can sometimes be harmful.”

It is “always of concern and worthy of investigation” when a mysterious insect causes illness, he said.

Additionally, Dr. Dunning advised against calling the enigmatic sickness “Disease X.”

WHO experts came up with the moniker, which alludes to a potential infection that might one day surface and trigger a major global pandemic or epidemic.

In 2018, the WHO listed it as one of the nine priority diseases. “Calling this incident a Disease X outbreak; at this point is simply wrong and counterproductive,” stated Dr. Dunning.

There is a great deal of mystery around this outbreak at the time of writing, observed Dr. Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton.

This type of outbreak will occur frequently worldwide.

We may or may not ever identify the precise insect that caused the illnesses, and they are usually contained without becoming too widespread.

The DRC’s rural location also makes the public health response more challenging.

However, they have expertise dealing with infectious illness epidemics because the nation has recently suffered mpox and Ebola outbreaks.

Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!