The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday it is rushing an emergency team to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to tackle an outbreak of highly fatal pneumonic plague that is thought to have killed dozens of people.
Although the disease can be controlled with antibiotics and proper health care, the WHO said its fears have been heightened because the outbreak occurred in an unidentified northern mining town riven by conflict and cut off from humanitarian aid.
”There hasn’t been any opportunity to initiate plague-control activities, so the outbreak has grown relatively large, I think in the hundreds of people possibly were affected,” WHO spokesperson Christine McNab said.
”It’s quite fatal in a lot of cases. We believe it’s probably dozens of deaths so far,” she told journalists.
The team is due to fly out to the Central African country on Saturday.
Bubonic plague is endemic in parts of Africa, including the DRC, but pneumonic plague, which occurs when the bacteria infects the lung, has a very high fatality rate and is ”invariably” deadly when left untreated, according to the WHO.
”This outbreak has occurred in an unstable area, where plague control has been extremely challenging in the past several years,” the health agency said in a statement.
”Plague is commonly reported in humans around the world. However, large outbreaks are rare because timely public health interventions and antibiotics have proven effective,” it added.
Humans are generally infected by rodents and fleas, but pneumonic plague can also be transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets. — Sapa-AFP