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The next pandemic?

Planigale

Philosopher
Joined
Jul 6, 2013
Messages
7,317
Location
49 North
Ex Africa Semper Aliquid Novi.
After Mpox (Clade 1 and 2 outbreaks), Ebola now we have a new respiratory illness. No doubt we will see claims that it is the product of a laboratory accident, been developed by Bill Gates etc.
An unknown disease killed 143 people in a south-west province of Democratic Republic of the Congo in November [2024], local authorities told Reuters. Infected people had influenza-like symptoms including high fever and severe headaches, Remy Saki, the deputy governor of Kwango province, and Apollinaire Yumba, the provincial minister of health, said on Monday [2 Dec 2024]. A medical team has been sent to the Panzi health zone to collect samples and carry out an analysis to identify the disease.

The situation was extremely worrying as the number of infected people continued to rise, said Cephorien Manzanza, a civil society leader. "Panzi is a rural health zone, so there is a problem with the supply of medicines," Manzanza said.

Sick people died in their own homes for lack of treatment, Saki and Yumba said. A local epidemiologist said women and children were the most seriously affected by the disease.

Results from lab tests on samples from patients with flulike symptoms in an unknown illness outbreak in a remote part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are expected within the next 24 to 48 hours, an official from the country's health ministry said today.

Dieudonne Mwamba, MD, PhD, director-general of the National Institute of Public Health within the DRC's health ministry, said during an Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) briefing that the outbreak began on October 24 in Panzi Health Zone in a remote landlocked area of Kwango province, which is in southwestern DRC about 400 miles from Kinshasa, the country's capital. Africa CDC officials said they are sending a team to the area, which includes infection prevention and control experts and epidemiologists.

Mwamba said national authorities didn't learn of the outbreak until early December—6 weeks later—and that officials have activated emergency operations in response. The DRC is grappling with multiple disease outbreaks and is the epicenter of Africa's mpox outbreaks.

Flulike symptoms include fever, headaches, coughing, breathing difficulty, and anemia. So far 376 cases have been reported, 79 of them fatal, according to Africa CDC's total.
 
Published Date: 2024-12-07 01:36:16 GMT
Subject: PRO/EDR> Undiagnosed deaths - Congo DR (03): (KG) RFI
Archive Number: 20241207.8720502

UNDIAGNOSED DEATHS - DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (03): (KWANGO) REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
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A ProMED-mail post
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International Society for Infectious Diseases
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Date: Fri 6 Dec 2024 15:37 CST
Source: CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy) [edited]
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/misc-eme...am-dr-congo-assist-undiagnosed-outbreak-probe


Amid an outbreak involving a still-undetermined cause in a remote location in the southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization (WHO) said today [6 Dec 2024] that it has deployed an expert team to support the country's investigators.

The outbreak in a remote part of Kwango province in the Panzi Health Zone began in late October 2024 and first came to the attention of national authorities this week. The remote location doesn't have testing capacity, and yesterday [5 Dec 2024] a top health ministry official said samples were sent to a lab in Kigali in neighboring Kwilu province, with results expected within 48 hours.

Case and death totals have been shifting as the investigation evolves. The WHO today [6 Dec 2024], citing the DRC health ministry, said 394 cases have been reported, 30 of them fatal. Symptoms include fever, headache, cough, breathing difficulties, and anemia.

The WHO said an initial local team from the WHO has been supporting health authorities in Kwango province since the end of November 2024 to help reinforce surveillance and identify cases.

In its announcement, the WHO said the new expert team will work alongside the DRC's national response team. The group includes epidemiologists, clinicians, laboratory technicians and infection prevention and control, and risk communication experts. The team is bringing essential medicines, as well as diagnostic and sample collection kits to help rapidly determine the cause of the illness.

Matshidiso Moeti, MD, who leads the WHO African regional office, said, "Our priority is to provide effective support to the affected families and communities. All efforts are underway to identify the cause of the illness, understand its modes of transmission and ensure appropriate response as swiftly as possible."

The outbreak in the DRC and reports of a potential respiratory component has led to heightened awareness of illness symptoms in travelers in some locations outside of Africa.

Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said yesterday [5 Dec 2024] that it has stepped up screening for travelers arriving from 2 travel hubs where travelers from the DRC typically originate: Johannesburg, South Africa, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Yesterday [5 Dec 2024] as well, media outlets in Ohio reported that a patient who had traveled from Tanzania to Cleveland had been isolated and hospitalized at UH St. John Medical Center for evaluation of flulike illness. Today [6 Dec 2024], hospital officials said the patient's condition is considered routine and that the individual is not in isolation anymore, BNO News reported, citing a statement from the health facility.

[Byline: Lisa Schnirring]

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