Plague Epidemics and Lice, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Plague Epidemics and Lice, Democratic Republic of the Congo

<1 case/100,000 population/year, and the disease accounts for ≈2%–3% of all leukemias in adults in the United States (8). Infections are a common complication for patients with this disease (10). These 2 cases of imported melioidosis show that travelers with hematologic malignancies are at risk for such infections (1). Immunocompromised travelers might be first sentinels for ongoing endemic dis...

Democratic Republic of Congo

Programme outcome: The IFRC 2010 support strategy and plan for the Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Red Cross of DRC) was based on the National Society’s (NS) 20092013 Strategic Development Plan and was designed to help the NS provide vulnerable communities with life-saving first aid, clean water and sanitation, health and hygiene promotion, HIV/AIDS support, sexual and gender bas...

Mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Ecologic Features of Plague Outbreak Areas, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2004–2014

During 2004-2014, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared 54% of plague cases worldwide. Using national data, we characterized the epidemiology of human plague in DRC for this period. All 4,630 suspected human plague cases and 349 deaths recorded in DRC came from Orientale Province. Pneumonic plague cases (8.8% of total) occurred during 2 major outbreaks in mining camps in the equat...

Lessons Learned about Pneumonic Plague Diagnosis from 2 Outbreaks, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Pneumonic plague is a highly transmissible infectious disease for which fatality rates can be high if untreated; it is considered extremely lethal. Without prompt diagnosis and treatment, disease management can be problematic. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2 outbreaks of pneumonic plague occurred during 2005 and 2006. In 2005, because of limitations in laboratory capabilities, etiolo...