WHO raises alarm as unknown illness kills more than 50 people in hours

Wednesday, February 26, 2025 - Doctors have raised alarm about a "really worrying" unidentified deadly illness that k!lls in a matter of hours. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported more than 50 de@ths in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from an unknown disease that quickly causes symptoms. 

WHO doctors on the ground in the African nation have treated hundreds of cases and found a small, two-day interval between the onset of symptoms and de@ths. 

Serge Ngalebato, medical director of the Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring centre, said in a statement following the concerning discovery that the relatively small window between symptoms and de@th is "really worrying". 

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

The WHO said the outbreak began just a month ago on January 21, and that 419 cases have been recorded between then and mid-February. 

Of the more than 400 people who have caught the disease since then, 53 people have d!ed, a roughly 12.49 percent fatality rate - sky high compared to diseases like Covid, which comes with a 3.14 percent fatality rate. 

According to the WHO's Africa office, the first outbreak in the town of Boloko began after three children had eaten a bat and d!ed within 48 hours following haemorrhagic fever symptoms. 

After the second outbreak of the current mystery disease began in the town of Bomate on February 9, samples from 13 cases have been sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in the capital, Kinshasa, for testing, the WHO said. 

All samples have been negative for Ebola or other common haemorrhagic fever diseases such as Marburg. Some tested positive for malaria.