The World Health Organization reportedly announced Thursday that a rapidly spreading mystery disease associated with bats has killed dozens of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with over half of them passing away within 48 hours of exhibiting symptoms.
As of February 23, the WHO reported that 60 people had been died and 1,096 individuals had been afflicted with the disease, which produces uncontrollable bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea, and other signs of hemorrhagic fever.
Last month, three children in the isolated Équateur Province town of Boloko were found to have the illness.
The toddlers perished within two days after vomiting blood and getting nosebleeds.
A few weeks later, hundreds of people are ill in the village of Bomate, where a second, bigger outbreak was reported 100 miles away. According to the WHO, 141 people contracted the sickness in a single week.
How the sickness spreads is still a mystery to the Congolese and the WHO.
The outbreak coincides with President Trump’s swift reversal of American leadership in international relief and health efforts.
On his first day back in office, he declared that the United States will leave the WHO.
His administration also ordered thousands of American government aid workers abroad to return home and suspended international aid pending a 90-day review.
Although the administration declared a waiver for life-saving help, groups using U.S. funds are nonetheless subject to stop-work orders. Food and medicine are running low in the Congo, where over 26 million people depend on emergency relief, according to humanitarian organizations.
Congo, a huge nation that spans Africa’s waist, is already having difficulty handling a number of crises, such as the recent takeover of important eastern cities by rebels supported by Rwanda.
The Ebola and Marburg viruses, which also cause fatal bleeding, have been ruled out by test samples sent to a facility in Kinshasa, the nation’s capital.
Malaria was detected in certain samples, raising more concerns about the outbreak in an area that straddles the Congo River and is close to the Republic of Congo border.
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