Mystery illness in Congo kills more than 50 people, including children who ate a bat

MT HANNACH
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An unknown disease has killed more than 50 people in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to doctors from the Central African Nation and the World Health Organization.

The interval between the appearance of symptoms and death was only 48 hours in the majority of cases, and “this is what is really worrying,” said the Associated Press, medical director of the ‘Bikoro Hospital, Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional surveillance center.

The last epidemic of diseases in Congo began on January 21 and 419 cases had been recorded on Monday, including 53 deaths.

According to the WHO Bureau of Africa, the first epidemic in the city of Boloko began after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours of the symptoms of hemorrhagic fever.

There have been a long time concerned about Diseases that jump from animals to humans In places where wild animals are committed by popular. The number of these epidemics in Africa has increased by more than 60% over the past decade, WHO said in 2022.

Dr Congo-Goma-Market Daily
Sellers sell chicken in a street market in Goma, the northern Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo on February 1, 2025.

Zanem Nety Zaidi / Xinhua / Getty


After the second epidemic of the current mystery disease began in the city of Bomate on February 9, samples of 13 cases were sent to the National Biomedical Research Institute in the capital of Congo, Kinshasa, for tests, declared the who said.

All samples have been negative since Ebola or other current hemorrhagic fever diseases such as Marburg. Some positive tested for malaria.

Last year, another mysterious disease resembling the flu that killed more than 143 people In another part of the Congo, was determined as malaria.

Drcongo-Hanté-Virus-Pox
Nurses examine patients in an MPOX treatment center in Kamiga, the southern Kivu province, east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on September 20, 2024.

GLODY Murhabazi / AFP / Getty


Congo has suffered from many epidemics of disease in recent years, including typhoid, malaria and anemia. The country also recently faced a MPOX epidemicAccording to the WHO, with more than 47,000 suspicious cases and more than 1,000 suspicious deaths of the disease.

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