GRIEVING families have been warned against touching their dead loved ones as a mystery flu-like disease continues to kill dozens. An unknown infection that causes flu-like symptoms has already killed 143 people in Congo, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to launch an urgent probe. People have been dying at an alarming rate in the Kwango province in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, near the border with Angola.
A local epidemiologist said that women and children were the most severely affected by the disease. In the days prior to death patients have been suffering high fever, severe headaches, coughs and anaemia, according to a local health official. Now the official, Apollinaire Yumba, has issued a disturbing warning to people to avoid touching the bodies of their dead loved ones as there is a danger of contamination.
READ MORE IN HEALTH He made a desperate plea for medical supplies and international aid in order to deal with the unfolding crisis. The deputy governor of Kwango, Remy Saki, said the 143 recorded deaths had occurred over just two weeks in November. No data has been released on the number of patients that are suspected to have been infected or hospitalised in the horrific outbreak.
Local officials have described how the sick are tragically dying at home because there is a lack of treatment available to combat the mystery killer. Most read in Health They are desperate for scientists to identify exactly what the disease is so that it ca.