A team of experts was dispatched last week after the discovery of this disease. Twenty cases had been detected.
Tanzania announced Monday (July 18th) that it has identified the mysterious illness that killed three people in the south-east of the country as leptospirosis, a bacterial disease carried by rodents and often benign to humans.
Last week, the Tanzanian authorities dispatched a team of doctors and experts to investigate this disease detected in the Lindi region, where 20 cases were detected.
A disease that can be “cured”
Visiting the region, Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu said on Monday that the disease was caused by a bacterium excreted by wild animals, such as rats or foxes, and transmitted through water or food contaminated with the virus. urine of these animals. “The good point is that this disease can be avoided and cured“Explained the minister, calling on the population to calm down.
Most patients have recovered from the disease, the symptoms of which include nosebleeds, fever, headache and fatigue. Two remain in solitary confinement, she said. All tested negative for Ebola, Covid-19 and Marburg, a hemorrhagic fever almost as deadly as Ebola, two cases of which were recorded in Ghana on Sunday.
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Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on July 12 that this “odd“disease could have been caused by”growing interactionsbetween humans and animals due to environmental degradation. Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease found worldwide. In humans, it is often mild but can cause kidney failure.
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