According to health authorities, the disease is a respiratory disease.
A previously unknown disease making the rounds in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a severe form of malaria, the country’s health ministry said.
Health authorities said on Tuesday that the disease, which is spreading in the southwestern province of Kwango, is in the form of a respiratory illness.
Earlier this month, local authorities said the disease killed 143 people in the country’s Panzi health zone in November Fears overcome about the mysterious illness.
“The mystery is finally solved. “It is a case of severe malaria in the form of a respiratory disease,” a health ministry statement said, adding that malnutrition in the area has weakened the local population and made them more vulnerable to disease.
The statement said 592 cases had been reported since October, with a fatality rate of 6.2 percent.
Provincial Health Minister Apollinaire Yumba told Reuters that malaria drugs provided by the World Health Organization were being distributed in key hospitals and health centers in the Panzi health zone.
A WHO spokesman said more health packages for moderate and critical cases would arrive on Wednesday.
The symptoms of the disease are fever, headache, cough, runny nose and body aches.
According to national health authorities, most cases and deaths occur in children under 14, with children under five making up the majority of cases.
“Some children and some others who died were found to be short of breath,” said Congolese Health Minister Roger Kamba said earlier this monthnoting that some patients suffered from anemia, which was the cause of some of the deaths associated with the disease.
The disease outbreak is about 700 km (435 miles) from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, with the Panzi health zone being “rural and remote,” the WHO said, making the investigation an additional challenge.
A doctor at Panzi Hospital told Al Jazeera last week that the facility was not adequately equipped to deal with the outbreak.
According to the Severe Malaria Observatory, the Democratic Republic of Congo has the second highest number of malaria cases and deaths in the world. According to the Observatory, malaria is also the leading cause of death in the country.
