53 dead in Congo from unknown disease

According to a report by the Associated Press, over 50 fatalities have been recorded due to an unidentified disease outbreak in the northwestern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The onset of the outbreak was documented on the 21^(st) of January 2025, resulting in a total of 419 reported cases, of which 53 have proven to be lethal. The outbreak originated in the town of Boloko, where three children who consumed a bat died within 48 hours due to symptoms consistent with haemorrhagic fever. On 9 February 2025, a second outbreak of the same disease began in the city of Bomate. Consequently, the WHO deployed samples from 13 cases to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa for thorough examination. This investigation excluded the presence of Ebola and other viral diseases commonly associated with hemorrhagic fever, including the Marburg virus. In 2024, a mysterious flu-like disease afflicted a different region of Congo, resulting in a significant number of fatalities. The disease was initially suspected to be malaria; however, a definitive diagnosis could not be established. The WHO has emphasised that in the past decade, there has been a more than 60% surge in outbreaks of this nature in Africa, a phenomenon partly attributed to frequent interactions among humans and wild animals.