An unknown disease has killed 50 people in northwestern Congo, according to doctors on the ground and the World Health Organization on Monday.
The time interval between the appearance of the first symptoms and death was 48 hours in most cases and "this is very worrying," said the director of the Bikoro regional hospital, Serge Ngalebato.
The mysterious disease emerged on January 21 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, recording 419 cases, of which 53 people have died.
According to the WHO Africa office, the first outbreak of the disease was recorded in the town of Boloko after three children, who had eaten a bat, died within 48 hours from symptoms of hemorrhagic fever.
There have long been concerns about the spread of disease from animals to humans in countries where people eat wild animals. The number of such diseases in Africa has increased by more than 60 percent over the past decade, according to 2022 WHO data.
Following the second outbreak of this mysterious disease in the town of Bomate on February 9, samples from 13 cases were sent for laboratory testing to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo.
All samples showed no evidence of Ebola or other diseases associated with hemorrhagic fever symptoms, such as Marburg disease. However, some tests were positive for possible malaria infection. VOA (A2 Televizion)
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