NPR They’re calling it Disease X. It’s a mysterious illness circulating in a remote part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Current figures: over 400 cases, including 31 deaths. International health authorities are monitoring.
It all started on October 24 when the first patient fell ill with an unidentified sickness. Others soon followed, all in Kwango Province, which is more than 400 miles from the capital Kinshasa. But it wasn’t until more than five weeks later that the national government was notified.
“At the Emergency Operation Center for Public Health and at the INSP [National Institute of Public Health] — which is in maximum alert mode — we’ve already positioned central-level teams who will leave within 24 hours to join the [local] health zone,” says Dr. Dieudonné Mwamba, the director general of INSP, who spoke in French at a press briefing on Thursday.