Mystery illness spreading in Congo rapidly kills dozens

Health clinic in Democratic Republican of Congo

The short interval between the onset of symptoms and death is 'really worrying'

(Image credit: Michel Lunanga / AFP via Getty Images)

published 26 February 2025

What happened

At least 53 people have died in two clusters of an unknown illness in the Democratic Republican of Congo, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. The outbreak, in Equateur province, was traced back to three children under age 5 in one village who had eaten a dead bat. The children, like a significant portion of the other fatalities, had symptoms similar to a hemorrhagic fever — nosebleeds, diarrhea, fever and vomiting blood — and died within 48 hours.

The WHO said that with 431 cases as of Feb. 16 and a fatality rate of 12.3%, the outbreak posed a "significant public health threat." All 18 samples sent to Kinshasa for testing came back negative for common hemorrhagic fever diseases such as Ebola and Marburg, the WHO said, and the "exact cause remains unknown." The short interval between the onset of symptoms and death is "really worrying," Serge Ngalebato, the medical director of the regional Bikoro Hospital, said to The Associated Press.

A "genuinely new illness" sometimes emerges, as with Covid-19, "but it is very rare," Michael Head, a global health researcher at Britain's University of Southampton, said to The Washington Post. The spread of "hemorrhagic fever–like symptoms" in a country with poor public health infrastructure is "concerning," but usually it turns out to be "a bug" that "we know about." A flu-like disease that killed dozens in southwestern Congo in December was later determined to have been caused by malaria.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.