The Ministry of Public Health should declare the « Chikungunya » virus disease an epidemic in the DRC. More and more kinsmen and even the population of Kongo Central suffer and others die of ignorance. No good management of this disease is organized nor the exact figures of the cases detected and examined in scientific laboratories.
In the meantime, the urgency is to raise awareness among the population to draw attention to this disease that silently kills.
It is within this framework that the Interdisciplinary Center for Health Risk Management organized a morning of scientific information on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, for media professionals meeting within the association of health communicators. in Africa (ACSA / DRC).
According to Professor Justin Masumu, a researcher at this Center, Chikungunya is not his first appearance. Already from 1999 to 2000, more than 50 000 cases were recorded; in 2012: four health zones were affected; and in December 2018, the alert left the municipality of Mont Ngalula.
Symptoms similar to malaria
According to testimony gathered during this scientific morning, all the patients who suffered from this disease, had clinical signs similar to those of malaria.
These include high temperatures and headaches. But the difference is in pain and paralysis of upper and lower limbs, accompanied by vomiting and lack of appetite.
And each case had distinct signs of the other. This makes complex medical management complex.
Declaration of epidemic
By declaring Chikungunya as an epidemic, experts explained, this would allow the appropriate centers and laboratories as well as the Ministry of Health, through its indicated services, to have more elements on which to communicate and also to prepare response.
To date, only good environmental sanitation can prevent this disease that is transmitted by a virus called « Aedes. »
Nadine FULA