An unknown disease that poses a ‘significant public health threat’ has already killed more than 50 people in the Democratic Republic Of Congo, DRC.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa office the disease started on January 21 in the village of Boloko, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after three children ate a dead bat.
All three had bled from their nose and had vomited blood before they died. Other victims have experienced fever, vomiting, bleeding, headache and joint pain.
The children, aged under five, were from the same village, where four more children have died since January.
So far 419 cases have been confirmed and 53 people have died in the Équateur Province, a northwestern region of rainforests and farmland almost the size of England.
Bats are known to harbour diseases like Marburg and Ebola viruses.
