By Eloge Kaneza

At least 143 people have died from an unknown disease that broke out in Congo’s rural southwestern province of Kwango.

“From November 10 to 25, we reported 67 deaths. Now, when our team went down on the ground on Wednesday, with the help of local civilians, they found 20 dead in one village alone. In another village that had not been counted, they discovered 40 deaths, in addition to new deaths on Thursday, 4 in number,” said an agent of the National Institute for Biomedical Research – known as INRB, its French acronym. The agent spoke to Amjambo Africa on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Apollinaire Yumba, the provincial Minister in charge of health for the province of Kwango, first announced the outbreak on December 3. According to Minister Yumba, children are the most vulnerable. Symptoms include fever, headache, cough, pallor, and anemia. The disease broke out in the Panzi health zone.

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“The provincial government has sent a team of epidemiological experts who arrived this morning in Panzi, to assess the situation. But it should be noted that along the way, before they arrived at the central office of the zone, they found many deaths in the villages, caused by this disease,” Yumba said.

The provincial government has sent a team of expert epidemiologists to the site to determine the nature of this disease. The team will take samples and send them to INRB for in-depth analysis.

While waiting for more information on this disease, Yumba calls on the population to respect the rules of hygiene.

In addition, Yumba asks the population not to panic, and to limit their movements in and out of the Panzi health zone. He suggest following the same measures observed during the COVID-19 pandemic – avoid shaking hands; wash hands regularly; stay at home if possible.

The presence of this unknown disease that is ravaging the population is also confirmed by the head of the Panzi sector, Alexis Kapenda,who calls for the government to protect the population from the disease. 

Kwango is a province in southwestern DR Congo. Its economy centers on the mining of minerals and diamonds. Mining activities are mainly carried out along the Kwango and Wamba rivers.

“The samples are currently being analyzed in the laboratory. We don’t know the results yet,” an official assigned to Minister Yumba’s office told Amjambo Africa.

This mysterious disease is manifesting itself at a time when the country is fighting the Mpox epidemic. In a press briefing on Thursday, December 5 in the capital Kinshasa, the Congolese Minister in charge of Public Health, Roger Kamba, announced that the country has already recorded 1,193 deaths from mpox since the outbreak of the disease. Vaccines needed to stem mpox outbreak on African continent –  . At least 10,846 cases have been confirmed out of 49,056 cases that have been identified.