The World Health Organization is reportedly having trouble tracing the origin of an unknown disease out of central Africa's Democratic Republic of Congo, the New York Post reported on Monday.
According to the World Health Organization, "Disease X," as it's being referred to in circulating news reports, is a placeholder term for an unknown disease.
So far, according to local officials, the disease is said to have infected 406 people in the DRC since October and killed 143 — mostly children.
WHO officials have dispatched a rapid response team to investigate the origin of the mysterious disease. On Sunday, the health officials said that the center of the outbreak likely stems from the Kwango province, but heavy rain and poor road conditions would mean a two-day journey before they arrive. Also complicating matters in identifying the disease is the fact that many who have ostensibly succumbed to it suffer from malnutrition.
"These challenges, coupled with limited diagnostics in the region, have delayed the identification of the underlying cause," the WHO stated. "Teams are collecting samples for laboratory testing, providing a more detailed clinical characterization of the detected cases, investigating the transmission dynamics, and actively searching for additional cases, both within health facilities and at the community level."
Nonetheless, it is not clear that a mystery disease is causing such an outbreak. The cause could be, the WHO said, due to multiple diseases such as influenza, COVID-19, measles, or malaria.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have cautioned that Disease X could be airborne, though its precise nature and method of transmission remain uncertain.
Reported symptoms of the illness in question include fever, headache, cough, nasal congestion, body aches, breathing difficulties, and anemia.