About 100 people are believed to have died in a suspected outbreak of pneumonic plague in the strife-torn north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in Geneva on Wednesday.
The WHO said that suspected bases of bubonic plague have also been reported, but the total number is currently unknown.
The United Nations agency said that 19 of the deaths were reported in Ituri district, a regular plague hot spot.
”Ituri is known to be the most active focus of human plague worldwide, reporting around 1 000 cases a year,” said the WHO.
A team from the aid group Médecins sans Frontières, the WHO and the DRC ministry of health has been sent to the area to take stock and help local health authorities, it added.
Pneumonic plague is fatal if left untreated. The disease is similar to bubonic plague except that the bacteria infect the lungs.
Isolation wards have been set up to care for patients, and people who may have been in close contact with victims are being traced and are receiving treatment, said the WHO.
”However, control measures have been difficult to implement because of security concerns in the area,” it said.
The Ituri region is riven by conflict that has long hampered humanitarian aid efforts.
The last outbreak in the DRC surfaced in late December.
Pneumonic plague is considered more dangerous than bubonic plague because it can be transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets. The bubonic version is transmitted by fleas or rodents. — Sapa-AFP