“Deadly Illness Strikes Congo, Killing Dozens”
An unknown illness was initially detected in three children who consumed a bat and has swiftly claimed the lives of over 50 individuals in the northwestern region of Congo within the past five weeks, as reported by health experts. The timeframe between the manifestation of symptoms – encompassing fever, vomiting, and internal bleeding – and fatalities has predominantly been 48 hours, a concerning trend noted by Serge Ngalebato, the medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a local surveillance center. The manifestation of these symptoms resembling “hemorrhagic fever” is frequently associated with well-known lethal viruses like Ebola, dengue, Marburg, and yellow fever. However, after analyzing more than a dozen samples, researchers have eliminated these possibilities.
The most recent disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo commenced on January 21, with 419 cases reported and 53 fatalities. The initial occurrence transpired in Boloko village following the demise of three children who ingested a bat and succumbed within 48 hours, as disclosed by the Africa office of the World Health Organization on Monday. There have been persistent apprehensions regarding diseases transferring from animals to humans in regions where the consumption of wild animals is prevalent. The World Health Organization announced that the frequency of such outbreaks in Africa has escalated by over 60% in the past decade.
Subsequent to the emergence of a second outbreak of the enigmatic disease in Bomate village on February 9, samples from 13 cases were dispatched to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, for analysis, according to the WHO. All samples tested negative for common hemorrhagic fever diseases, although some exhibited positive results for malaria. Notably, a similar mysterious flu-like illness that claimed the lives of numerous individuals in another Congolese region last year was eventually attributed to malaria.
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