An unknown infectious disease has been discovered in northwestern Tanzania.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
An unknown infectious disease has been discovered in northwestern Tanzania. At the moment, five infected people have died, another seven people have symptoms of the disease, such as fever, vomiting, bleeding and kidney failure, foreign media report citing the Republic’s Ministry of Health.
An unknown disease was reported in the northwestern region of Kagera, where Tanzania borders Uganda. A similar outbreak occurred in Tanzania in July of last year. Then three people with very similar symptoms died in an outbreak in the Lindi region of southern Tanzania, with more than 20 cases reported in total. The victims were examined for the most dangerous viruses: Ebola and Marburg. It was later determined to be leptospirosis, also known as Weil’s disease, a very rare infection that is transmitted through the urine of animals, including rats, mice, cows, pigs, and dogs. It is caused by pathogenic bacteria of the genus Leptospira.
Symptoms include fever, headache, malaise and nausea, muscle and joint pain, red eyes, and loss of appetite. Serious cases of infection can cause yellowing of the skin and eyes, swelling of the ankles, feet, or hands, chest pain, difficulty breathing, or coughing up blood. You can cure the disease with the help of antibiotics, the course can be from several days to several weeks. But without treatment, the infection can take months to recover and can lead to life-threatening kidney and liver failure. Mortality (the percentage of people who died over the number of infected) due to leptospirosis is quite high, around 7-8%, and in severe form it reaches 25-30%.
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