Mystery illness prompts probe after three die from ‘strange bleeding disease’

A “strange” bleeding disease has started killing people, prompting an investigation into the new “mystery illness” in an east African nation.

A team of doctors and health experts have been dispatched to investigate a mysterious disease that has infected more than a dozen people and claimed the lives of three in Tanzania, according to the government.

Symptoms of the illness include fever, headaches, fatigue and nosebleeds, the government’s chief medical officer Aifello Sichalwe said in a statement on Wednesday,

So far, 13 cases have been reported in the southeastern region of Lindi, including the three people who died.

Sichalwe said the patients had tested negative for Ebola and Marburg, as well as Covid-19.

So far, 13 cases of the mystery illness – including three deaths – have been reported in Lindi, Tanzania. Picture: Google.

One of the patients had fully recovered while the others were being isolated, he said.

“The government formed a team of professionals who are still investigating this unknown disease,” he added, calling on people in the area to remain calm.

Ghana last week reported two suspected cases of the Marburg virus, which belongs to the same family as Ebola and has symptoms including high fever and internal and external bleeding.

Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Tuesday the “strange” disease reported in Lindi may have been caused by “growing interaction” between humans and wild animals as a result of environmental degradation.

Both Marburg and Ebola, known to spread between humans, can be carried by fruit bats.

Ghana — located on Africa’s west coast — last week reported two suspected cases of the Marburg virus, which kills up to 90 per cent of infected patients.

The patients were not known to each other, suggesting the disease is spreading more widely.

- With AFP