A remote region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the oldest hotspots in the world. The plague has increased since the end of 2020 in a remote area on the borders of Uganda and Sudan.
The plague was first detected in 1926 in the Ituri province, a remote area of the northeastern DRC. The health service in the province says “Congolese hotspot is the oldest in the world.”
“The spread of the plague has not stopped since it was discovered. It appears and disappears. Now it has returned after 40 years. The population was not prepared,” said environmental epidemiologist Anne Laudisoit, who is part of an interdisciplinary team sent to the site, according to Agence France- Press (AFP).
Since November, more than 15,330 suspected plague infections have been registered, including seven deaths, according to audited epidemiological records. It is transmitted to humans through infected fleas on rodents, especially black rats. In search of food, rats carrying fleas enter people’s homes.
“The population is not aware of the danger that fleas and rats pose to the transmission and endurance of the plague,” said Michel Mandro, a Congolese doctor working in the regional health department.
He noted that “the regional laboratory specializing in analyzing the strains of the epidemic, which has been in the province for a long time, has not been operational for more than 30 years.” Mandro stressed that “this requires actors in this field to send samples to the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, which is more than two thousand kilometers away.”
The suspected examples have not yet been confirmed, which according to experts is an example of the neglect over the years to investigate the disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The country, which has a population of 84 million, has been relatively spared from coronavirus, with 26,405 infections and 711 deaths recorded since March 10, 2020.
A new Ebola outbreak was reported in February in northern Kivu province, which borders Ituri. A woman died on February 4 from the Ebola virus in hospital while being treated, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO also noted that 117 contacts were made and intervention activities continue.
Ebola killed more than 2,000 people during the outbreak, which lasted from August 2018 to June 2020.
.
