Unknown ‘flu-like’ disease ‘targeting women & children’ kills 143 people in just TWO WEEKS as WHO launches urgent probe

After 143 deaths in two weeks from an unknown “flu-like” condition that primarily affects women and children, the World Health Organization has launched an urgent investigation.

According to local officials, those infected in Congo have had symptoms such as high fever and excruciating headaches.

Kwango province, located in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and on the border with Angola, is where deaths are being reported.

According to the province’s health minister Apollinaire Yumba and deputy governor Remy Saki, medical teams have been dispatched to gather samples and conduct analysis in order to diagnose the illness.

Other authorities, however, have cautioned that the situation is “extremely worrying” and that the number of fatalities keeps rising.

As medical professionals race to identify the ailment, a startling 67 deaths had been documented as of November 25.

People who have contracted the unidentified disease are reportedly sadly dying in their own homes as a result of a lack of care.

Additionally, according to a local epidemiologist, the sickness most severely impacted women and children.

It is unknown if patients have tested negative for other common ailments, and health officials have not yet released the findings of the tests and samples.

The number of persons suspected of being hospitalized or infected during the terrible outbreak has not been made public.

According to a WHO representative on Tuesday, the disease’s existence was reported to the UN health organization last week.

Additionally, it stated that it was collaborating with the public health ministry of the Democratic Republic of Congo to do additional research.

“The situation is extremely worrying as the number of infected people continues to rise,” stated Cephorien Manzanza, a civil society representative.

“Panzi is a rural health zone, so there is a problem with the supply of medicines.”

The WHO has declared a global public health emergency due to an epidemic of an extremely lethal strain of mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

During an initial epidemic this year, the highly contagious disease sickened 13,700 people and killed at least 500.

The virus, which was originally known as monkeypox, expanded to 12 other African nations. In August, scientists expressed concern about the rapid spread of a new disease type and its high death rate.

The comparatively mild strain of the virus was the cause of a previous mpox public health emergency that was announced in 2022.

But this time, a much more lethal variety emerged.

Additionally, a fatal Ebola outbreak in Congo in 2019 that claimed over 1,600 lives was deemed a worldwide health emergency.

After a case of the virus was discovered in a city with two million residents, the World Health Organization (WHO) at the time acknowledged the situation.

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