Bunia,DR Congo — Thirty-one people have died in an outbreak of plague that erupted in northeastern DR Congo three months ago, health officials and experts said on Friday.
“We have more than 520 cases… of which more than 31 have been fatal,” Patrick Karamura, health minister in Ituri province, where plague is endemic, told AFP.
The cases are the bubonic form of the disease, except for five cases of pneumonic plague and two of septicaemic plague, he said.
Anne Laudisoit, an epidemiologist with a New York-based NGO called Ecohealth Alliance, said the cases had surfaced between November 15 and December 13 in Biringi, in Ituri’s Aru Territory.
The average age of patients was 1…
Keep on reading: 31 dead in DR Congo plague outbreak