Tejal Somvanshi
A mysterious illness has claimed 53 lives in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with most victims dying within just 48 hours of showing symptoms. The outbreak has raised serious concerns among health officials due to its rapid progression and unknown cause.
The illness first appeared on January 21, 2025, in the town of Boloko after three children died shortly after eating a bat. As of February 25, health authorities have recorded 419 cases across the region.
“The interval between the onset of symptoms and death has been 48 hours in most cases, and that’s what’s really worrying,” said Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring center.
Victims experience severe symptoms including fever, vomiting, internal bleeding, headache, body aches, chills, cough, sweating, runny nose, neck stiffness, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps. The hemorrhagic fever-like symptoms typically associated with diseases such as Ebola have prompted extensive testing.
Samples from 13 cases were sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa for analysis. All tested negative for common hemorrhagic fever diseases like Ebola and Marburg, though some samples tested positive for malaria. This mirrors a situation from last year when another mystery illness that killed 143 people in a different part of Congo was later determined to be likely malaria.
A second outbreak of the current mystery illness was reported in the town of Bomate on February 9, suggesting the disease is spreading beyond its initial location.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the illness as a significant public health threat, noting the case fatality ratio stands at 12.3%. The organization’s Africa office traced the outbreak’s origin to Boloko, where three children under the age of 5 died after reportedly consuming a bat carcass.
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Health officials highlight that the remote location of the affected areas and Congo’s limited healthcare infrastructure increase the risk of further spread. This situation “requires immediate high-level intervention to contain the outbreak,” according to the WHO report.
The connection to bat consumption has raised concerns about zoonotic diseases – illnesses that jump from animals to humans. Such outbreaks have surged by more than 60% across Africa over the last decade, according to WHO data from 2022.
Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, noted that while outbreaks of unknown illnesses happen regularly worldwide, the scale of this outbreak is concerning.
“Usually, it’s a bug that we know about but haven’t yet diagnosed in that particular outbreak,” Head explained. “However, here, it is concerning that we have hundreds of cases and over 50 deaths, with hemorrhagic-fever like symptoms widely reported among those cases.”
Congo has faced multiple disease outbreaks in recent years, including typhoid, malaria, and anemia. The country has also battled an mpox outbreak with more than 47,000 suspected cases and over 1,000 suspected deaths.
The current mystery illness investigation continues as health officials work to identify its cause and prevent further spread in a region already dealing with significant health challenges.
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