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In the Democratic Republic of Congo, international health officials have been deployed to help stave the spread of a mysterious respiratory disease.
The United Nations' World Health Organization said in a statement over the weekend that it had sent a team to try to identify the cause of the strange illness and bolster the local response. In a post-COVID world, the stakes are high: DRC health authorities have already recorded 406 total cases and 31 deaths, and the disease is disproportionately affecting young children.
Dubbed "Disease X" by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this flu-like illness seems to be associated with a wide range of symptoms ranging from body aches and fever to cough, difficulty breathing, and anemia.
Though most of the cases of this strange illness have been local to Congo's Kwango Province, the Italian news outlet Il Tempo reports that a native of that country was hospitalized after traveling there and developing symptoms.
While it remains unclear exactly what's causing this instance of Disease X — a placeholder term used by the WHO and other organizations to identify unknown pathogens that could turn into pandemics — the UN is hoping that further testing will reveal the underlying cause.
Because most of the recorded cases have taken place in an extremely poverty-stricken and remote area — the WHO says it takes 48 hours to reach the region from the Congo's capital city of Kinshasa — testing resources ahead of the team's arrival were few and far between.
The explanation could be as simple as an outbreak of an existing deadly pathogen. Or there could even be more than one disease contributing to the illnesses and deaths — especially considering that Congo often suffers from epidemics due to its lack of access to basic medical care.
"Given the clinical presentation and symptoms reported, and a number of associated deaths, acute pneumonia, influenza, COVID-19, measles and malaria are being considered as potential causal factors with malnutrition as a contributing factor," the WHO statement reads. "Malaria is a common disease in this area, and it may be causing or contributing to the cases."
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