(Corrects paragraph 4 to say October this year, not October 2020)
LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo’s health ministry said on Tuesday that a previously unidentified disease circulating in the country’s Panzi health zone is a severe form of malaria.
Earlier this month, local authorities said the disease had killed 143 people in the southwestern Kwango province in November.
“The mystery has finally been solved. It’s a case of severe malaria in the form of a respiratory illness… and weakened by malnutrition,” the health ministry said in a statement.
It also said that 592 cases had been reported since October with a fatality rate of 6.2%.
(Reporting by Yassin Kombi; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Bate Felix)
