Unknown febrile disease, which killed over 50 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) northeastern Equateur province, confirmed to be malaria, the National Public Health Institute coordinator Christian Ngandu told a Western media outlet.
Between March 10 and 16, a total of 37 new cases of febrile illness and one death were reported in the Equateur province's Basankusu district, local news portal 7sur7 said, citing a report from a ministerial meeting where Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba briefed on the outbreak situation.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, a total of 58 deaths and 2,957 cases were recorded in Basankusu, resulting in a fatality rate of 1.96%, the report added.
The disease was suspected to be linked to an undetermined source of poisoning, the health minister reportedly noted.
Meanwhile, the report of the previous ministerial meeting showed a total of 331 new cases and one death in the same district registered on March 3-10, according to the news portal.
According to the WHO's late February report, initial laboratory tests on samples taken from patients in the northeastern DRC ruled out Ebola and Marburg viruses, but about half of the samples tested positive for malaria.
At the same time, further testing for meningitis and environmental contamination was underway, with samples being sent to the national reference laboratory in Kinshasa, the WHO said.