...

Logo Pasino du Havre - Casino-Hôtel - Spa
in partnership with
Logo Nextory

Mystery disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo is severe malaria, local authorities say

Business • Dec 18, 2024, 9:26 AM
3 min de lecture
1

A mystery disease that has killed dozens of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in recent weeks has been identified as severe malaria, local health officials have reportedly said.

Officials in the Central African country reported earlier this month that hundreds of people - mostly children under five years old - had gotten sick with an unknown flu-like illness in the southwestern Kwango province, prompting health workers to flock to the remote region to collect samples and help care for patients.

"The mystery has finally been solved," the health ministry said in a statement obtained by Reuters. “It's a case of severe malaria in the form of a respiratory illness”.

The DRC’s health ministry said there have been 592 cases since October, with a fatality rate of 6.2 per cent, which is much lower than the previously reported death toll.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it has not confirmed the determination, but that malnutrition-exacerbated malaria was among the conditions being considered as a potential cause of illness, along with acute pneumonia, influenza, COVID-19, and measles.

'Lab testing is ongoing' - WHO

Noted symptoms of the mystery condition have included fever, headache, cough, runny nose, fatigue, and body aches, and all patients with severe illness were severely malnourished.

Malaria is common in the DRC, with more than 30.5 million cases and nearly 79,000 deaths in 2021.

A WHO spokesperson told Euronews Health that the organisation is still waiting on the results of samples that were sent to the national laboratory in Kinshasa, which is about 700 km away from the outbreak region, for testing.

"Lab testing is ongoing," the spokesperson said. "Some samples arrived this weekend in Kinshasa and others are on their way".

Identification has been slow because it takes two days to reach Kwango province by road, and the rainy season has slowed health workers’ routes there.


Today

Childhood diabetes rates are rising globally. How does Europe compare?
Business • 10:14 PM
4 min
A Nordic country has the world’s highest rate of childhood type 1 diabetes, according to a new analysis.
Read the article
Who is David Sacks, Donald Trump’s pick for the US' new crypto and AI czar?
Business • 10:11 PM
4 min
President-elect Donald Trump tapped David Sacks to be his new man on artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto. Here’s what we know.
Read the article
Dengue fever cases reach record-high in the Americas amid climate change
Business • 9:56 PM
5 min
The number of dengue cases in the region is the highest level since officials began tracking it in 1980.
Read the article
Italy's privacy watchdog fines OpenAI €15 million after probe into ChatGPT data collection
Business • 8:44 PM
3 min
The Italian Data Protection Authority found OpenAI used personal data to train their AI without "an adequate legal basis" for doing so.
Read the article
Union reaches agreement with Volkswagen to avoid plant closures
Business • 6:22 PM
2 min
After days of negotiations which looked like they had reached a stalemate, German workers union IG Metall has reached a deal to avoid Volkswagen plant closures as well as redundancies and wage cuts.
Read the article
EU-Swiss single market trade deal faces challenging referendum 
Business • 6:08 PM
3 min
The EU and Switzerland reached a bilateral agreement on Friday worth an estimated €550 billion in trade. But ratification of the deal is far from a foregone conclusion, as the Swiss have yet to vote on it.
Read the article
Nearly half of people in the UK use online health information to self-diagnose, survey finds
Business • 3:45 PM
3 min
Minor ailments and mental health conditions were among the most diagnosed, according to the survey.
Read the article
Tesla recalls 700,000 vehicles over tyre pressure monitoring system
Business • 2:41 PM
2 min
The issue is that the tyre pressure monitoring system warning light on the vehicles may not stay on between drive cycles, failing to warn the driver of low tyre pressure.
Read the article
Trump threatens trade tariffs unless Europe buys a lot more US oil and gas
Business • 2:04 PM
2 min
US president-elect keeps the prospect of a transatlantic trade war in the air, exactly a month before he is due to walk back into the White House.
Read the article
Officials say mystery outbreak in Congo could be more than malaria after haemorrhagic fever death
Business • 11:57 AM
4 min
Haemorrhagic fever isn’t typically associated with parasite-caused malaria, meaning the outbreak may be caused by more than severe malaria, authorities said.
Read the article
Volkswagen talks over future of plants and jobs at a 'stalemate'
Business • 10:03 AM
4 min
Workers at the car giant have been taking industrial action following VW's revelations about the possibility of closing German plants and axing thousands of jobs. Volkswagen is struggling with falling sales in Europe, high labour costs and excess capacity
Read the article
Rising butter prices leave European consumers with a sour taste
Business • 9:42 AM
6 min
Rising butter prices give European consumers and bakers a bad taste
Read the article
Barcelona is turning its metro trains into EV chargers thanks to regenerative brakes
Business • 9:12 AM
7 min
Regenerative brakes allow metro trains to produce energy rather than heat, which is now being used to supply EV charging points at street level.
Read the article
EU bans harmful chemical from materials in contact with food
Business • 7:15 AM
3 min
The European Commission has banned the use of bisphenol A, a chemical harmful to human health, in materials that come into contact with food.
Read the article
Rwanda’s Marburg outbreak is officially over after no new cases reported, WHO says
Business • 12:50 AM
4 min
No new cases of the highly lethal Ebola-like virus have been reported in Rwanda since late October.
Read the article