A mystery illness found in a remote part of Congo has been officially identified as a severe form of malaria, which has sickened nearly 600 people and killed 143.

A man in western Congo has died with hemorrhagic fever symptoms. Health authorities say that has led them to suspect that a still-unidentified virus may be involved alongside malaria in a mysterious outbreak that has killed dozens of people.

Congo’s health ministry told Reuters this week that malaria was the culprit: “The mystery has finally been solved. It’s a case of severe malaria in the form of a respiratory illness,” it said Tuesday in a statement, according to Reuters. The ministry did not respond to multiple inquiries from NBC News.

Haemorrhagic fever isn’t typically associated with parasite-caused malaria, meaning the outbreak may be caused by more than severe malaria, authorities said. View on euronews

"The mystery has finally been solved," Congo's health ministry says, after an unidentified disease outbreak started killing mainly women and children in a remote region.

Earlier this month, local authorities said the disease had killed 143 people in the southwestern Kwango province in November.

Malaria has been identified as the likeliest cause of an illness that has killed more than 80 people in south-western Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa's main health agency said. Victims of the previously unknown disease had been suffering flu-like symptoms such as fever, headaches, breathing difficulties and anaemia.

The mystery disease's virus, which has remained unidentified for over three weeks now, is suspected to have been a factor alongside malaria in the outbreak.