AP Features, August 30th, 2007
More than 100 people have died in a remote part of Congo, including all those who attended the funerals of two village chiefs, in what health officials fear is an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever.
People began dying of the suspected fever after the high-profile funerals in Mweka, a region of southeastern Congo where relatives usually wash the bodies of the deceased by hand, said Jean-Constatin Kanow, the chief medical inspector for the province.
In the past, Congo has seen large outbreaks of Marburg and Ebola, both hemorrhagic fevers caused by viruses that, in severe cases, attack the central nervous system and cause bleeding from the eyes, ears and other parts of the body.
"Everyone that attended those funerals is now dead," said Kanow. "We began by suspecting typhoid fever, but now we believe its hemorrhagic fever."
In all, four villages are affected and 217 people have come down with the illness, including 103 who died. Of the dead, 100 were adults and three were children, said Kanow.
Two medical teams from the province's administrative seat have been sent to Mweka, an area with a population of 140,000. A third team, from the National Institute of Biomedical Research, was expected to arrive Wednesday from Kinshasa, the capital, 690 kilometers (430 miles) northwest of Mweka.
The researchers were planning to take blood samples to be analyzed at laboratories specializing in hemorrhagic fever.
Congo's last major Ebola outbreak struck in Kikwit in 1995, killing 245 people. Kikwit is about 300 kilometers (185 miles) from the site of the current purported outbreak.
