The frightening symptoms that victims stand out in an outbreak of a mysterious disease in Congo have been revealed.
More than 50 people have already died in the outbreak, where most patients appear within 48 hours after the symptoms appear. A total of 413 people are reportedly infected.
The first case was reported in the city of Boloko on January 21, with three children younger than five years old, reportedly got sick after they ate a dead bat.
In a statement, officials in the country that patients had suffered a hemorrhagic-like disease with symptoms of fever and vomiting, but then had large internal bleeding.
In a report from the local health department, civil servants added that the first three things in children younger than five who reportedly ate a dead bat, also suffered from diarrhea and tiredness.
Patients reported symptoms of neck and joint pain, sweating and shortness of breath. For those younger than 59 years old, intense thirst and children were also stubborn crying.
Local officials have described the outbreak as 'really disturbing', in which doctors said that the outbreak was 'really alarming' and 'significant for the rest of the world'.
It is not clear what is behind the outbreak, with patients testing negatively on a hemorrhagic fever such as Ebola and Marburg virus.
The above shows employees in Hazmat suits in Victoria, Australia, in June last year after they had been called to report from an outbreak of bird flu
About half of the patients have tested positively in malaria, comparable to a separate outbreak in the country that was reported at the end of last year. Many patients also report that they suffer from malnutrition.
Dr. Zania Stamataki, an immunologist at the University of Birmingham in the UK, said: “The symptoms shown in these infections differ from the alarming infections caused by severe malaria in the DRC at the end of last year.
“The time of the beginning of the symptoms to death is 48 hours, which is very alarming.”
She added: 'We know that patients have tested negatively on well -known hemorrhagic fever viruses such as Marburg and Ebola. Other hemorrhagic fever-seeing pathogens are being investigated. '
It is also not clear how the disease spreads, although doctors say that earlier cases have spread hemorrhagic diseases through contact with patients' liquids.
Marburg or Ebola – other hemorrhagic viruses – are spread throughout the air.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is also investigating the possibility that the outbreak is caused by a toxic agent, rather than a virus or bacteria.
Scientists fear that more patients will be identified in the outbreak in the coming days.
Marburg has a death rate of up to 88 percent. There are currently no vaccines or treatments approved to treat the virus
The World Health Organization reported that 431 people had been brought down with 53 dead in two remote villages in the western province of Western Équateur
Cases were then included in the village of Danda and then a second larger outbreak in Bomate Village – which pushed the case price to 400. A local media outlet has suggested that nearly 1,000 people are infected.
The WHO has warned: 'Urgent action is needed to accelerate laboratory tests, improve case management and insulation capacities and to strengthen surveillance and risk communication.
“The external location and weak infrastructure for health care increase the risk of further spread, which means that immediate intervention at a high level must contain the outbreak.”
Dr. Michael Head, a senior researcher in Global Health at the University of Southampton in the UK, said: 'There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about this outbreak.
'This kind of outbreaks will often happen all over the world and will usually be brought under control relatively quickly.
“Here, however, it is worrying that we have hundreds of cases and kill more than 50, with hemorrhagic-free symptoms that are often reported in those cases.”
He added: 'Tests are never 100 percent accurate, and it is likely that we have a confirmed pathogen in some of those samples during increased tests.
'The lack of infrastructure in health care in the DRC means that the response of public health is more complicated.
“However, the country has recently had mpox and ebola outbreaks, so they are experienced in tackling epidemics of infectious diseases.”
Experts have long been warned about diseases that jump from animals to people through locations such as wet markets, where wild animals are eaten – labeling ideal breeding grounds for pathogens.
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