An undiagnosed illness has killed dozens of people and infected hundreds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the World Health Organization. Preliminary investigations have linked the outbreak to three toddlers who died after eating a bat in January.
According to a weekly bulletin provided by the World Health Organization's Africa office, 53 persons in the country's northwest have died from the sickness, out of 431 reported cases as of Feb. 15, and "with nearly half of the deaths occurring within 48 hours of symptom onset" in one of two detected clusters.
"The outbreak, which has seen cases rise rapidly within days, poses a significant public health threat," according to the study; also, "the exact cause remains unknown."
Symptoms reported by victims included fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and body aches, among others. The youngsters who died from the sickness also experienced nosebleeds and vomited blood.
The link to a bat could be relevant because viruses found in bats are known to cause a variety of different diseases in people. Bats are known to be natural reservoirs for the Marburg and Ebola viruses, which cause ongoing outbreaks in the region, and a bat virus appears to be a precursor to the COVID-19 virus.
The sickness, which afflicted residents in Congo's Équateur Province, was fatal in more than 12% of cases. Investigators discovered an initial infection in Boloko Village, which then moved to nearby Danda Village, according to the WHO. A second, larger outbreak erupted in Bomate Village, infecting more than 400 people.
The scientists sent 18 samples to Congo's capital, Kinshasa, for testing, ruling out the Ebola and Marburg viruses.
Last year, an unexplained flu-like virus afflicted hundreds of people in the country's southern region. It was eventually discovered that the cause was most likely respiratory illnesses aggravated by malaria.
The mystery outbreak in northwestern Équateur Province is several hundred miles away from the violence and humanitarian disaster raging in eastern Congo. M23 insurgents backed by Rwanda are attacking the Congolese Army and gaining momentum.
Équateur is a region the size of Kentucky that straddles the Congo River, with much of it sparsely populated cropland and rainforest.
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