A multidisciplinary action to put an end to Konzo disease in DRC

“Only a scientific multidisciplinary collaboration can to put an end to Konzo disease in DRC,” said Professor Dieudonné Mumba at conclusion of his presentation about a survey realized on ground in Kahemba, in province of Bandundu, where the prevalence rate is 5%.

It was during the conference about spasmodic bilateral and non-evolution paralysis of inferior limbs commonly called Konzo, organized by High teaching and University ministry and chaired by the minister Léonard Mashako Mamba himself in WHO headquarter in Kinshasa, Saturday, October 22, 2011.

The minister supported that option in saying that “in DRC, everybody wants maintain master in his corner instead to collaborate with others for putting an end to a problem.”

Konzo, said Professor Baneya, is a disease which is characteristic of irreversible invalidity of inferior limbs and in step 3, invalidity of view and memory. Konzo isn’t a curable disease and without medicine curative isn’t knew today. The consumption of bitter variety of cassava is the spring of the disease. The environment of food business crisis is a factor promoting the consumption of bitter cassava.

In DRC, Konzo is in provinces of Western and Eastern Kasai, North Kivu, Katanga and Bandundu which is the most affected foyer in the world. In Africa, Konzo is also in Tanzania, Mozambique, Central African Republic, Angola, Cameroun and Nigeria.