Russia offers to help fight mysterious disease in Africa

Moscow has offered medical support to Burundi as it faces an unknown outbreak, and is planning a new biosafety center in Congo

Russia has announced new initiatives to combat infectious diseases in Africa, including responding to a mysterious outbreak in Burundi and expanding cooperation with the Republic of the Congo.

In recent years, mpox – a rare deadly tropical disease – has spread across parts of the continent, while several countries have also faced other infection outbreaks, and Ebola and cholera have killed thousands in West and Central Africa.

Russia’s public health agency, Rospotrebnadzor, announced on Tuesday that it will establish an epidemiology and infection prevention center in the Republic of the Congo. A memorandum was signed by its head, Anna Popova, and Congo’s minister of health and population, Jean-Rosaire Ibara.

“The creation of the center will ensure the national sovereignty of the Republic of the Congo in the field of biosafety,” the Rospotrebnadzor press service noted.

The move follows a 2023 agreement on sanitary and epidemiological cooperation signed on the sidelines of the second Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg.

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In addition, Moscow also offered to assist Burundi in responding to an outbreak of an unknown disease in the north of the country.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 35 cases have been identified and at least five people have died in the Mpanda district. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, blood in the urine, fatigue, and jaundice.

Laboratory tests for Ebola, Marburg, and other known diseases have returned negative, raising concerns about the nature of the outbreak.

“While it’s reassuring that preliminary analysis is negative for these serious infections, further investigations are ongoing,” Lydwine Badarahana, Burundi’s minister of health, has said.

Rospotrebnadzor reported it has sent a proposal to assist Burundi and noted that a joint infectious disease research center is already operating in Bujumbura.

Russia has been expanding health cooperation with African countries in recent years. In July, Rospotrebnadzor began training Ugandan medical personnel, and has also supplied Burkina Faso with a mobile laboratory capable of processing up to 800 tests per day for more than 20 infectious diseases.

READ MORE: Russia to send mpox tests to Africa

Moscow has also supplied technical assistance to several other African nations, including Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, and Ethiopia, during outbreaks of mpox, which was declared a public health emergency across parts of the continent in 2024.