A disease exhibiting Ebola-like symptoms has recently surfaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The World Health Organization reports that the disease was first identified on January 21, with hundreds infected and over 50 fatalities recorded in the country’s northwest over the past five weeks. Health officials are still investigating the cause of this outbreak.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the outbreak may have originated in the village of Boloko, where three children succumbed shortly after consuming the carcass of a bat. Infected individuals are experiencing symptoms such as fever, headache, diarrhea, nosebleeds, vomiting blood, and generalized bleeding—symptoms that correspond with those caused by viruses like Ebola and Marburg. However, experts have excluded these pathogens after testing over a dozen samples from suspected cases.
In early February, health authorities documented a second cluster of cases and deaths in the village of Bomate, located several hundred kilometers away; currently, no connection has been established between the two clusters. As of February 15, the most recent report from the WHO noted a total of 431 suspected infections and 53 deaths. In many instances, the time from symptom onset to death was merely 48 hours.
Samples from 18 cases were sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, the DRC’s capital, where they tested negative for the most prevalent pathogens associated with hemorrhagic fever symptoms, although some tested positive for malaria. “The precise cause remains unidentified, with Ebola and Marburg having already been ruled out, raising concerns about a potentially severe infectious or toxic agent,” noted the WHO in its latest bulletin regarding the outbreak, emphasizing the urgent need for accelerated laboratory investigations, better management and isolation of those infected, as well as heightened surveillance and risk communication efforts. “The remote location combined with a fragile health care system heightens the risk of further transmission, necessitating immediate high-level intervention to control the outbreak.”
Disease outbreaks resulting from pathogens in animals transferring to humans—a process referred to as zoonotic spillover—are increasingly frequent in Africa. Major factors contributing to this trend include changing land usage and climate change, both of which can enhance interactions between humans and wildlife harboring pathogens. WHO estimates indicate a 63 percent rise in outbreaks of diseases transmitted from animals to humans in Africa from 2012 to 2022. The continent has experienced a number of mpox outbreaks in recent years, along with clusters of Ebola and Marburg cases.
Late last year, another mysterious illness claimed the lives of over 70 individuals in the southwest of the DRC, many of whom were children. In that outbreak, symptoms resembled those of the flu, and the majority of patient samples tested positive for malaria. This outbreak was ultimately attributed to respiratory infections exacerbated by malaria.
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.
