A strange, new illness festering in the heart of Africa has killed 179 people and counting – and most of the victims are teenagers, authorities said.
The unidentified disease has infected at least 300 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since November 10, causing flu-like symptoms including fever, headaches, coughing, breathing difficulties and anemia, that country’s health ministry told the BBC.
Most of the dead have been between 16 and 18, authorities said.
The government has dispatched a medical team to the Kwango Province, where the disease is most common, to investigate the strange outbreak, Reuters reported.
The government has urged citizens to stay calm, but Cephorien Manzanza, a civil society leader, told Reuters the rising number of cases is truly alarming.
“Panzi is a rural health zone, so there is a problem with the supply of medicines,” he said, referring to the hardest-hit village.
The outbreak comes just before the fifth anniversary of the first recorded case of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a hotbed for dangerous diseases, including ebola and, more recently, mpox, which infected at least 14,500 people from January to July of this year, according to the BBC.