A plague outbreak that erupted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) three months ago left 31 people dead, according to health officials.
Hundreds of cases have been identified in the province of Ituri, in the northeast of the country.
Patrick Karamura, the region’s health minister, told AFP on Friday: “We have more than 520 cases … of which more than 31 have been fatal.”
The cases are of the bubonic form of the disease, except for five cases of pneumonic plague and two of septicemic plague, he said.
Anne Laudisoit, an epidemiologist with the New York-based NGO EcoHealth Alliance, said the cases emerged in the province between November 15 and December 13.
The average age of patients was 13, but ranged between three months and 73 years, she said.
The EchoHealth Alliance warned last month that teenagers under the age of 17 appear to be the most at risk group, representing 78.9 percent of all sick people.
The plague has persisted in the province of Ituri since it was first confirmed in 1926.
It is an infectious disease caused by bacteria Yersinia pestis and is found in animals worldwide, including mice, squirrels and prairie dogs. Fleas generally serve as vectors of the plague.
People can also be infected by direct contact with an infected animal, by inhalation and, in the case of pneumonic plague, person by person.
Yersinia pestis it is treatable with antibiotics if started early.
Laudisoit, who is working alongside a team of researchers in Ituri, said one of the first signs of the latest outbreak came with the mass death of rats.
The outbreak comes amid a worrying resurgence of Ebola in the DRC.
Two people died of the disease in the eastern province of North Kivu within a week.
The DRC health ministry has deployed a team in the health zones of Biena and Katwa to track more than 100 contacts of two women who have succumbed to the deadly disease.
Ebola swept through eastern Congo from 2018 to 2020 in an outbreak that killed more than 2,200 people before it was declared last June.
At least three people also died of Ebola in southeastern Guinea, the country’s first resurgence since the 2013-2016 deadly outbreak.
Another five patients tested positive for the disease and are being isolated in treatment centers, officials said.
The last major outbreak of Ebola in West Africa began in Guinea in 2013, with a death toll resulting from more than 11,000 after the disease spread across the continent. The vast majority of cases occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.