Doctors Raise Alarm as Mysterious Illness Claims Over 50 Lives Within Hours

Doctors have raised the alarm about a “really worrying” unidentified deadly illness that kills within hours.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported over 50 deaths in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) caused by an unknown disease that rapidly triggers severe symptoms.

WHO doctors on the ground in the DRC have treated hundreds of cases and observed a short, two-day interval between the onset of symptoms and death.

Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring center, described the narrow window between symptoms and death as “really worrying” in a statement following the alarming discovery.

The WHO warns that the outbreak may be the result of another virus jumping from animals to humans.

The outbreak began on January 21, with 419 cases recorded by mid-February. Of these, 53 people have died, resulting in a fatality rate of approximately 12.49%—significantly higher than diseases like COVID-19, which has a fatality rate of 3.14%.

According to the WHO’s Africa office, the first outbreak in the town of Boloko occurred after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours, showing symptoms of haemorrhagic fever.

Following a second outbreak in the town of Bomate on February 9, samples from 13 cases were sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa for testing.

All samples tested negative for Ebola and other common haemorrhagic fever diseases like Marburg, though some tested positive for malaria.