The World Health Organization has given an update on a mystery outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo causing international alarm.
A new report revealed there have been at least 1,096 illnesses in the Western Congo — double the previous week — and 60 fatalities, up from 53.
Many of the patients are dying within 48 hours of symptoms appearing and known threats viruses such as Ebola and Marburg have been ruled out.
The exact cause of the illnesses remains unknown but about half the patients have tested positive for malaria. Officials are also swabbing local food and water for signs of a toxin.
Victims’ symptoms have included fever, vomiting, diarrhea, body aches, and intense thirst, among others. The children who died from the illness also had bled from the nose, vomited blood and experienced incessant crying.
It is the second mystery outbreak to hit the Congo in three months, after more than 400 people were sickened in late December in a mystery outbreak that was later linked to malaria and malnutrition.
An ex-White House doctor warned yesterday that Trump administration cuts to funding have left many provinces scrambling to secure resources to control the outbreak.
Pictured above are workers in the Congo disinfecting buildings following an Ebola virus outbreak in July 2018
The mystery cases were first reported on January 21 in Boloko, in the north-west of the country, after three children reportedly ate a dead bat.
By February 9, mysterious infections were also being reported in Bomate, about 180 kilometers away. Both towns are about 300 kilometers from the provincial capital, Mbandaka.
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In its release today, the WHO said it had dispatched a team of experts and medical supplies, including testing kits, to the area. It did not give details on how many.
The outbreak is in an area that is only accessible via road or the Congo river, limiting access to healthcare, testing and treatment.
Local officials have described the outbreak as ‘really worrying’, while doctors outside the country have also raised the alarm because of the 48-hour window between symptoms appearing and death in many patients.
It is not clear how the disease is spreading, although doctors say that previous cases hemorrhagic diseases have spread via contact with fluids from patients.
A fatality rate has not been revealed, but Ebola kills about 25 to 90 percent of those it infects while Marburg kills 24 to 88 percent.
WHO investigators say they are also preparing to test samples for meningitis, or swelling of the brain that can be caused by bacteria or viruses.
In its release, it warned: ‘Further efforts are needed to reinforce testing, early case detection and reporting, for the current event but also future incidents.
‘WHO remains on the ground supporting health workers, collaborating closely with zonal, provincial and national health authorities to provide lifesaving medical supplies and to co-ordinate response to curb the spread of the illness and other outbreaks in the region.’
Warning over the outbreak, Dr Stephanie Psaki — an ex-White House doctor — said: ‘One of the strengths that the US Government had before was that it had partners all around the world, and USAID in particular, that it had contracts… that could easily be repurposed in order to respond to an emergency, whether it is an outbreak or something else.
‘Those contracts are possibly completely frozen or have been terminated, which means we don’t have the access to those areas we once did.’
‘Similarly, through our relationship with the World Health Organization and ministries of health in most countries around the world, we often were able to get information before it was made public. So, like, what tests have been administered and what results have come back, what’s the timeline for diagnosing this.
‘I would assume that the US Government does not have that information right now, and has a lack of clear information on what’s happening.’