The World Health Organization (WHO) is investigating a mysterious illness now known as Disease X, which has sickened hundreds of people in a remote region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo known as the Panzi health zone, which is in Kwango Province.
Between October 24 and December 5, 2024, there were 406 recorded cases of this as yet undiagnosed disease. It is causing a fever in almost everyone who has been ill, cough in about 90 percent of cases, fatigue in about 60 percent, as well as headache, cough, runny nose and body aches. The illness has led to 31 deaths, with a case fatality ratio of 7.6 percent. Those who have died have suffered from breathing difficulties, anemia, and acute malnutrition symptoms.
Most of those who have died have been under the age of 14; they represent 71 percent of deaths. Children aged 0 to 59 months are 53 percent of fatalities.
Remote village communities have experienced most of these deaths, and there has also been a serious lack of food security in the area in recent months. There is are also few diagnostic tools, healthcare facilities, or workers. Malaria is endemic in the region, and control measures for that disease are limited too.
In confronting this problem, the WHO team has to deal with many challenges, including the rainy season, extremely difficult travel over unpaved roads, and conflict zones. Biological samples have still been collected from those affected, and are now being assessed to determine the cause of these illnesses.
WHO has noted that there may be more than one cause for Disease X. The facilities in the DRC capital, Kinshasa that will deal with these samples have been supplied with adequate control measures, and patients are being treated with medication and clinical support.
Testing will have to rule out a variety of potential diseases including malaria, COVID-19, influenza, acute pneumonia, and measles, with acute malnutrition as a likely contributor to the disease and deaths.
WHO considers the local risk to still be high at this time, while the national risk is moderate because the disease is still localized to a remote region and other factors. However, they noted that Panzi is close to Angola, and there are gaps in surveillance, so heightened control and monitoring measures will be necessary to keep the regional risk low.
The risk at the global level is also still considered to be low as well. But WHO has stated that their confidence in all of this information is still only "moderate," since there are still many questions and challenges.
Source: World Health Organization (WHO)
