Health officials issue dire warning as mysterious flu-like illness kills 143

People are being urged to avoid ‘mass gatherings’ in Congo’s province at the center of the mysterious disease outbreak that has killed up to 143 people.

The country’s Ministry of Health also warned people to wash their hands regularly with soap and water and avoid touching dead bodies.

A total of 376 people have fallen ill in the outbreak that has hit Kwango province in the southwestern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The patients are usually children over 15 years old, officials say, and suffer from a flu-like illness with symptoms including fever, headache, runny nose, cough, difficulty breathing and anemia — or a lack of healthy red blood cells.

In response, the ministry has sent a team of health workers to treat sick people and test samples to identify the possible disease behind the outbreak.

The World Health Organization has also been alerted to the outbreak and has sent a team to the area to investigate the disease.

So far, no information about the results of the tests has been released and officials have not speculated about the disease behind the outbreak.

It comes as the DRC is also battling a raging outbreak of monkeypox, or mpox, which has sickened 12,500 people and led to 581 deaths.

The above map shows the Democratic Republic of Congo and highlights the province of Kwango where the outbreak has been recorded

Infections have been detected across the country, including in the province where the mysterious outbreak of the disease is recorded.

It is not clear whether monkeypox has been ruled out as a possible cause, but the symptoms it causes, such as a rash on the genitals or other areas, appear to be different.

The country has also previously reported 12 outbreaks of Ebola. One of the outbreaks, from 2020, killed 2,267 people.

Ebola usually starts with a sore throat and pain in the muscles and joints, before progressing to nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting.

Officials in the DRC have suggested that the disease that caused the mysterious outbreak could spread through the air – in a similar way to Covid.

Ebola, monkeypox and Marburg viruses – which have also caused outbreaks in the country – are spread through skin-to-skin or body fluid contact with patients.

Officials said yesterday that 143 people had been killed, but a government official later told the Associated Press that the death toll was between 67 and 143 fatalities.

Today the country’s health ministry said 79 people had died in the mysterious outbreak.

The outbreak is said to have started on October 24 this year and the number of cases has risen rapidly in recent weeks.

The ministry added in his update: ‘Laboratory test results will be communicated as they become available, and updates will be shared regularly with the public and partners.

“Pending the conclusions of the ongoing investigation, the ministry calls on the population to remain calm and vigilant and to strictly respect the… preventive measures.”

They added: “The ministry… expresses its deepest condolences to the families affected by this tragedy and extends its most sincere condolences to them.”

Officials said yesterday that the situation was “extremely worrying” and added that the death toll was rising rapidly.

Patients suffering from the mysterious disease are said to die in their own homes and struggle to get treatment.

A local epidemiologist said women and children were hardest hit by the disease.

A WHO spokesperson said on Tuesday that the UN health agency had been notified of the presence of the disease last week and was working with Congo’s health ministry to investigate further.

The country was rocked by a failed presidential coup earlier this year, which led to a British citizen and three American citizens being sentenced to death by a military court.