A mystery disease has killed more than 50 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) just hours after symptoms began.
The World Health Organization and doctors in the DRC said that the time between symptom onset and death was just 48 hours in most cases. The WHO describes the outbreak as posing ‘a significant public health threat’.
Officials believe the outbreak began on January 21, and 419 cases have been recorded as of Monday, including 53 deaths.
According to the WHO’s Africa office, the first outbreak started in the town of Boloko after three children reportedly ate a dead bat.
They died 48 hours after developing symptoms of hemorrhagic fever, a group of illnesses characterized by fever, bleeding, headache, joint pain, and other symptoms.
‘That’s what’s really worrying,’ Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital in the DRC, told the Associated Press, referring to how rapidly the victims perished.
The news comes after doctors warned President Donald Trump‘s purge of the CDC and ban on communications with the WHO raised the risk of future epidemics abroad and at home.
