The Ministry of Public Health has alerted all its offices to be vigilant about an infectious disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has sickened hundreds of people and has killed at least 79 since late October.
All health agencies have been asked to closely monitor the movements of people and any updates on the disease, although Thailand is deemed a low-risk country, said Opas Kankawinpong, the ministry’s permanent secretary.
The focus is mainly on all health control stations at border points and airports as they are the front line for people travelling to the kingdom, he added.
Suvarnabhumi Airport has not yet announced any specific measures to guard against the disease.
Hong Kong International Airport has tightened screening measures for all flights from transit hubs in Africa from Thursday. In Japan, the Foreign Ministry advised people against unnecessary travel to the region affected by the outbreak.
Health officials in DR Congo expect to know within days the cause of the infectious disease outbreak termed ‘Disease X’.
Almost 200 of the 376 people afflicted with a flu-like illness are younger than five years, said Jean Kaseya, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
Cases of fever, headache, cough, difficulty breathing and anaemia were first reported on Oct 24 in the Panzi health zone in the southwestern province of Kwango, with national authorities alerted on Sunday.
“We have had a delay of almost five to six weeks, and in five to six weeks so many things can happen,” Kaseya said. “Ongoing testing will help us to understand what is the issue.”
The disease emerged at a time of increased influenza circulation, and the culprit is likely to be airborne, said Dieudonne Muamba, director-general of the National Public Health Institute. Patient specimens are being analysed at a national lab in Kinshasa, 500 kilometres from the outbreak zone.
Tests may be completed within 48 hours, with results released over the weekend, officials said.
The outbreak has renewed concerns of the emergence of a new pathogen with potential to spread across the world just a few years after Covid-19 forced countries to shut down borders and brought economic and social activities to a standstill.
Earlier this year, the spread of a new strain of mpox prompted the World Health Organization to declare the disease a public health emergency of international concern, though the spread of the virus out of Africa has remained sporadic.