Post Reply - New flu kills 143 in the Congo

   DJ, Lots of "stories/claims" on the very remote DRC/Angola border area disease outbreak-but still "no news"...
https://afludiary.blogspot.com/2024/12/who-don-undiagnosed-disease-democratic.html https://afludiary.blogspot.com/2024/12/who-don-undiagnosed-disease-democratic.html ;

We have a lengthy report this afternoon from the WHO on the (still) undiagnosed disease outbreak in the DRC.  It was hoped that we'd have results this weekend, but it is the rainy season, and this is happening in a remote and poorly accessible region of the country, making access difficult. 
For now, WHO is working to determine the cause - or causes - of this outbreak, and has declared the risk to the affected communities as high, while at a national level it is moderate. 
For now, they state: 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.
We've been following this closely for several days and will obviously continue to do so.
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The majority of cases reported are among children, particularly those under five years of age. The area is rural and remote, with access further hindered by the ongoing rainy season. Reaching it from Kinshasa by road takes an estimated 48 hours. These challenges, coupled with limited diagnostics in the region, have delayed the identification of the underlying cause.

DJ, Again-it may be an outbreak of a mix of diseases in combination with "statistics"- maybe indicating a high number of deaths that may have been missed before...

If "answers were easy we would have an answer by now"....The longer it takes-very likely-the more "complex" the story may be...Number of cases may NOT represent people with all the same symptoms...So even that part of the story is a ????

The total lack of healthcare facilities in some parts of the globe, people living in extreme poverty, is a major underlying problem linked to "rich countries keeping the rest poor"...