Mysterious disease caused dozens of people in Congo after children eat bats – Country

Health experts say that in the past five weeks, an unknown disease has been initially discovered among three children in northwestern Congo, who quickly killed more than 50 people in northwestern Congo.

Serge Ngalebato, medical director of the regional monitoring center Bikoro Hospital, said the interval between symptoms (including fever, vomiting and internal bleeding) — in most cases 48 hours, which is truly worrying.”

These “bleed fever” symptoms are often associated with known deadly viruses such as Ebola, dengue, Marburg and yellow fever, but researchers ruled out these viruses based on tests of twelve samples collected so far.

The latest disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo began on January 21, recording 419 cases and 53 deaths.

The World Health Organization's Africa Office said on Monday that the outbreak began in the village of Broko, where three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours.

There has long been concerns about the disease jumping from animals to humans in places where wild animals are widely consumed. The WHO said in 2022 that the number of such outbreaks in Africa has increased by more than 60% over the past decade.

Get weekly health news

Receive the latest medical news and health information every Sunday.

The WHO said that after the second outbreak of the mysterious disease began in the village of Bomate on February 9, samples from 13 cases were sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, the capital of Kim Jong Il for testing. All samples were negative for common hemorrhagic fever diseases, although some were positive for malaria.

Last year, another mysterious flu-like disease that killed dozens of people in another section of Congo was identified as possible malaria.