There was an outbreak of ''a mysterious disease'' at a Zambian school
dormitory in September, 1993. Investigation with questionnaire and col
lection of throat swab specimens for virus isolation were carried out
on 46 patients to identify the causative agent. In this outbreak, most
of the patients showed similar symptoms such as fever, headache, sore
throat, cough, etc. The disease had spread to all dormitories within a
couple of days after the onset of the first cases. From these patient
s, 13 influenza viruses A/H3N2 were isolated on MDCK cell line. This w
as a first ever confirmed outbreak of influenza virus infection in Zam
bia.