The WHO stated the outbreak originated in the village of Boloko, when three children who reportedly ate a bat died within 48 hours of contracting the illness
Within five weeks, an unknown illness has killed 53 people in northwestern Congo, which has been traced back to three children who ate a bat.
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The illness first appeared on Jan. 21 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 431 recorded cases and over 50 deaths as of 10 days ago.
It has now spread across remote villages near the equator line, in countries like Chad, Angola, the United Republic of Tanzania, Nigeria and South Sudan, among others, according to a bulletin from the World Health Organization.
On Monday, the Africa office of the WHO stated the outbreak originated in the village of Boloko, when three children who reportedly ate a bat died within 48 hours of contracting the illness.
In the majority of severe cases, death comes just as quick, with symptoms that include fever, vomiting and internal bleeding. Serge Ngalebato, the medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring centre, said about the short interval between symptoms and death, “that’s what’s really worrying.”
These symptoms are referred to as “hemorrhagic fever,” which is commonly seen in viruses such as Ebola, yellow fever, dengue and Marburg. However, based on a series of tests collected so far, researchers were able to rule out these illnesses.
One common similarity between the unknown illness and these other hemorrhagic fever diseases is that they have all originated from animal-human interaction.
According to a statement from the WHO in 2022, the number of diseases caused by the jump between wild animals and humans in places where wild animals are consumed, has risen to 60 per cent. In the last 30 years, of 30 new pathogens discovered, 75 per cent of them were reported to come from animals.
In December, an illness similar to the flu reported in the Congo’s Kwango province was determined to be severe malaria, called “acute respiratory infections complicated by malaria” by the WHO.
On Feb. 9, an outbreak of the new mystery illness occurred in the village of Bomate and the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was able to test 13 of the reported cases for common hemorrhagic fever diseases. However, all tests came back negative, with some testing positive for malaria.
In a Tuesday briefing, WHO media spokesperson, Tarik Jasarevic, said “the outbreaks, which have seen cases rise rapidly within days, pose a significant public health threat.”
“The exact cause remains unknown,” he said.
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