Disease X – this is what the WHO calls a “new disease” with epidemic potential. Since October 2024, the WHO has been warning of a mysterious disease with sometimes fatal outcomes in Congo.
WHO puzzles over disease X in Congo
The WHO, the World Health Organization, put the so-called disease X on maximum alert at the end of 2024, when around 130 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are thought to have died from an unclear infectious disease – many of them children under five. The deaths were particularly concentrated in the Panzi region.
- In 430 laboratory samples from patients, malaria, flu, corona and other viruses were found. Severe respiratory infections were on the rise, some of them fatal.
- It was difficult for the Congolese health authorities to investigate the cause of the disease. According to the African health authority (CDC), it often took three days or more to transport the laboratory samples from the remote Panzi region, 700 kilometers away, to the capital Kinshasa. Only there is the medical infrastructure to evaluate them.
- Many of the laboratory samples from Panzi could not be evaluated afterwards. The poor transport infrastructure made it impossible to transport them quickly to the capital.
- Consequently, WHO was unaware of the global threat posed by the viral outbreak in Congo for weeks. Speculation centered on a new, unknown virus with an unpredictable epidemiological potential.
Disease X: This is what is behind it
After weeks of research and WHO puzzling over what is behind disease X in Congo, and even here in this country the first memories of the corona pandemic were awakened, the probable cause has now been found.
- It is assumed that around 40 percent of the people in the Panzi region affected by the disease wave are malnourished. Children are disproportionately affected by the famine, at around 60 percent.
- Viruses such as corona or malaria, which are already widespread in the region and well known, affect an undernourished population with a weakened immune system. As a result, these viral diseases often take a severe to fatal course with above-average frequency.
- According to the WHO, the results of laboratory analyzes indicate that a combination of seasonal viral respiratory infections and malaria, in conjunction with acute malnutrition, has led to an increase in severe infections and deaths, especially among children.
Pathogens that could trigger an epidemic or even a pandemic
Disease X is not a new pathogen. Instead, it is to be understood as a kind of placeholder. While a list of pathogens gives the feeling of knowing and controlling all threats, disease X is there to remind us that this is not the case. New pathogens are emerging all the time, and existing viruses or bacteria that are thought to be harmless could mutate in such a way that they suddenly pose a significant threat. The following diseases are examples of this:
- Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF)
- Ebola virus
- Lassa fever
- MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus)
- Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
- Nipah virus and Hendra virus
- Rifttalfieber
- Zika
- Coronavirus
