The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Friday that an unexplained sickness outbreak in western Democratic Republic of the Congo is suspected of being caused by poisoning.
The health crisis is the most recent to hit the central African nation, which has already experienced fatal bloodshed in its conflict-torn east and outbreaks of mpox.
According to the WHO, since the beginning of the year, there have been about 1,100 cases in the western province of Equateur, with 60 fatalities and symptoms include fever, headaches, joint pain, and body pains.
Although tests for hemorrhagic fevers like Marburg and Ebola had come back negative, Mike Ryan, the UN agency’s director of emergencies, said an inquiry was in progress.
Ryan said during an online press conference that it “looks very much more like a toxic type event, either from a biologic perspective like meningitis or from chemical exposure.”
According to him, local officials had stated that “there is a very strong level of suspicion of a poisoning event” connected to a village’s water source.
“Clearly, at the centre of this, it would appear that we have some kind of poisoning event,” he declared.
The WHO reports that 58 fatalities and 158 illnesses were recorded in Equateur’s Basankusu zone earlier this month. In Basankusu, 141 additional persons became ill last week; no new fatalities were reported.
Last month, eight people died and 12 others were ill in the neighbouring Bolamba zone.
Malnutrition and common respiratory illnesses were ultimately blamed for the unexplained deaths that occurred in the southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo in October and November of last year.
Ryan stated that a “significant set of deaths and disease caused by multiple agents in a vulnerable population” is plaguing the enormous nation.
He bemoaned the fact that the world only tended to take notice when there appeared to be a threat that might extend beyond the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Once we establish that it’s not some major new Earth-killing virus, we all lose interest,” he stated.
In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the fatal clade 1b type of mpox first appeared in 2023, an armed group reportedly supported by Rwanda has taken over several cities, sparking concerns about a potential health crisis.
