A worrying new illness, named “Disease X,” is hitting the Democratic Republic of the Congo hard. Since late October, it has made nearly 400 people sick and caused 79 deaths, mostly among children under five years old. Health workers in Congo are working all the time to find out what causes this disease.
The sickness, first found on October 24 in the Kwango province, shows symptoms like fever, cough, breathing problems, headaches, and tiredness. Authorities were only notified about it on December 1. Jean Kaseya, a health official, said this delay could be dangerous because a lot can happen in five to six weeks.
Health experts think the disease might spread through the air, especially since it appeared during a time when many people have the flu. Tests are being done on patient samples in a lab far away in Kinshasa, with results expected soon.
This outbreak is raising worries about a new deadly disease that could spread like COVID-19 did. Earlier this year, another virus called mpox spread across countries, leading to major health alerts, even though it mostly stayed in Africa.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is helping Congo with teams of experts to monitor and control the situation. The World Health Organization (WHO) is also sending important medicines and tools to help understand how the disease spreads.
To keep everyone safe, health officials in Hong Kong started checking travelers coming from African cities, while Japan is warning people not to travel to the affected areas
Leave a Reply