Health officials are raising urgent concerns about an unidentified deadly illness spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo that can kill within hours of symptom onset. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported over 50 deaths in the country’s northwestern region from this mysterious disease that rapidly progresses from initial symptoms to fatal outcomes.
WHO doctors working in the region have treated hundreds of cases, noting the particularly alarming two-day window between when patients first show symptoms and when they succumb to the illness.
“The relatively small window between symptoms and death is really worrying,” said Serge Ngalebato, medical director of the Bikoro Hospital, which serves as a regional monitoring center for the outbreak.
According to WHO reports, the outbreak began on January 21, with 419 cases recorded by mid-February. The disease has claimed 53 lives so far, representing a fatality rate of approximately 12.5 percent—significantly higher than diseases like COVID-19, which has a fatality rate of around 3.1 percent.
The WHO’s Africa office traced the initial outbreak in the town of Boloko to three children who died within 48 hours of eating a bat, showing hemorrhagic fever symptoms before their deaths. A second outbreak was recorded in the town of Bomate starting February 9.
Health authorities have been working to identify the pathogen, with samples from 13 cases sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa for testing. So far, all samples have tested negative for Ebola and other common hemorrhagic fever diseases like Marburg, though some patients tested positive for malaria.
The WHO has warned that this outbreak may represent another case of a virus jumping from animals to humans, raising concerns about a potential new zoonotic disease emerging in the region.
