KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - The World Health Organization said Friday it was deploying experts to investigate a mystery flu-like illness that has killed dozens of people in southwest Congo in recent weeks.
"All efforts are underway to identify the cause of the illness, understand its modes of transmission and ensure an appropriate response as swiftly as possible," the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said in a statement.
The symptoms include fever, headache, cough and anemia. Epidemiological experts from the National Rapid Response Team are in the region to take samples and investigate the disease.
Authorities in Congo have so far confirmed 71 deaths, including 27 people who died in hospitals and 44 in the community in the southern province of Kwango, Health Minister Roger Kamba said Thursday.
The deaths were recorded between Nov. 10 and Nov. 25 in the Panzi health zone of Kwango province. There were around 380 cases, almost half of which were children under the age of 5, according to the minister.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded slightly different numbers, with 376 cases and 79 deaths. The discrepancy was caused by problems with surveillance and case definition, the head of the Africa CDC, Jean Kaseya, said.
"First diagnostics are leading us to think it is a respiratory disease," Kaseya said. "But we need to wait for the laboratory results."
The Panzi health zone, located around 435 miles (700 kilometers) from the capital Kinshasa, is in a remote part of Kwango province making it hard to access.
It took epidemiological experts two days to get there, Congo's health minister said. Because of lack of testing capacity samples had to be taken to Kikwit more than 500 kilometers away said Dieudonné Mwamba head of National Institute for Public Health.
Mwamba said that Panzi was already a "fragile" zone with 40% residents experiencing malnutrition. It was also hit by an epidemic typhoid fever two years ago currently resurgence seasonal flu across country
Oscar Kazwa resident Panzi daughter died weeks ago mystery disease "She high fever coughing vomiting very weak." Kazwa "As no adequate care she died."
WHO experts joining National Rapid Response Team Panzi support response outbreak team includes epidemiologists clinicians deliver medicines sample kits help identify cause disease collaborate community leaders enhance surveillance promote infection prevention
Since late November local WHO team helping Kwango´s health authorities disease surveillance organization's statement
While Kamba not aware reports disease other than Panzi WHO statement Friday reported seven thirty zones Kwango province