What is the mystery illness causing deaths in the Congo?

Health experts have issued a warning about an unknown illness that has killed over 50 people in northwestern Congo in the last five weeks.

The illness was initially found in three children who had eaten a bat.

Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring centre, stated that the time between the onset of symptoms - fever, vomiting, and internal bleeding - and death has typically been just 48 hours, which is a key area of concern. “That’s what’s really worrying,” Ngalebato said.

The “hemorrhagic fever” symptoms are usually associated with deadly known viruses, such as Ebola, dengue, Marbug, and yellow fever. However researchers have excluded these possibilities after testing over a dozen samples.

The most recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo began on 21 January, with 419 cases and 53 deaths.

This outbreak started in Boloko, the village where three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours, the Africa office of the World Health Organization said on Monday (24 February).

Another outbreak of the mystery disease began in the village of Bomate on 9 February.

Samples of 13 cases were sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, and all samples were negative for common hemorrhagic fever diseases although some tested positive for malaria, APreports.

The WHO said in 2022 that the number of outbreaks of diseases jumping from animals to humans in places where wild animals are usually eaten has surged more than 60% in the last decade.

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