Health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday said that laboratory testing confirmed that a mysterious illness that killed more than 50 people earlier this year was malaria.
The National Public Health Institute announced that tests confirmed the disease caused the deaths of 52 people and affected nearly 1,000 others in Equateur province.
Symptoms included fever, fatigue, vomiting, and weight loss. Initially suspected to be either malaria or food poisoning, the illness was identified after lab testing on patient samples.
“Lab testing on samples has now confirmed that it was malaria,” INSP professor Christian Ngandu, who also coordinates Congo’s public health emergency operations centre, which is affiliated with the INSP, said by telephone.
Officials are still awaiting the results of tests on food, water, and drink samples.
This follows a separate malaria outbreak in December, also initially unidentified, that has since been confirmed as malaria.
