What’s Happening in the Congo?
New “mystery disease” now causing fatal hemorrhaging
News about a “mystery illness” in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been bubbling up in the news for some months, but it’s now taken a more serious turn: In addition to having flu-like symptoms—can someone please come up with a better description of these symptoms that herald the beginning of illnesses from the common cold to AIDS and cancer?—some affected individuals are now experiencing fatal hemorrhaging.
According to the February 16 Weekly Bulletin on Outbreaks and Other Emergencies, a second cluster of cases and deaths has been reported in Bomate Village, in the DRC’s northwest province. (1)
Among the 32 cases in the second outbreak reported from January 30 to February 9, there were 20 deaths. Increased investigation revealed that there were 419 cases in the province, with 50 known deaths. According to the DRC’s Weekly Bulletin:
“The primary clinical manifestations include fever, chills, headache, myalgia, body aches, sweating, rhinorrhea (runny nose), neck stiffness, cough, vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal cramps. Close to half of the deaths (48.9%, n=22) occurred within 48 hours of symptom onset.” (1)
These patients were tested for other tropical diseases, including Ebola and Marburg viruses, viral hemorrhagic fever, and food or water poisoning. None was positive for any of these known conditions.
The first reported outbreak in early January—in Boloko Village, in another province—included three deceased children. In addition to the symptoms described above, the children “later progressed to haemorrhagic signs and symptoms, including subconjunctival haemorrhage [broken blood vessels in the eyes], epistaxis [nose bleeds], and haematemesis [vomiting blood], before succumbing to the illness.” (1)
By January 27, Boloko Village (the site of the first outbreak) had recorded 10 cases with 7 deaths; a nearby village (Danda), recorded 2 cases with 1 death.
An illness with a death rate that tops 50%—in as quickly as 48 hours—seems like it should garner some attention from the rest of the world. In about 16 hours, a person can fly from the DRC capital city, Kinshasa, to LaGuardia Airport in New York.
And while some epidemiologists muse about the “mystery illness” originating in bats or marmots or other exotic (to North America) species, the DRC has an endemic veterinary hemorrhagic illness in a mainstay of much of the North American diet, i.e., pork: African Swine Fever (ASF), caused by the ASF virus. The USDA is vigilant in guarding against ASFV entering the US pig population. Infected herds are destroyed, given that there’s no treatment or vaccine for ASFV and the safety of consuming infected pork is unknown but discouraged. (2)
Every government health authority in virtually every country on the planet insists that ASFV cannot be transmitted to humans. But an illness with which African Swine Fever is sometimes confused, swine flu, caused an epidemic in the United States (and elsewhere) in 2009-2010. The swine flu virus, H1N1, is “similar” to the flu virus affecting swine—and everyone who’s ever examined the content of the annual flu vaccine is familiar with how rapidly flu viruses mutate. Even the CDC admits that swine flu leapt from pigs to humans:
“The 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus was first detected in people in the United States in April 2009. The virus was new to people and was able to spread easily from person-to-person, causing the first flu pandemic in more than 40 years. This virus had two genes from influenza A viruses that normally spread in pigs in Europe and Asia, three genes from influenza A viruses that normally spread in North American pigs, as well as genes from human and avian influenza A viruses. This particular virus had not been detected in North American pigs before April 2009. The 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus is now considered a human seasonal influenza A virus.” (3)
Given the risk that ASFV poses to North American pork producers, would any health authorities admit it if this hemorrhagic illness mutates to be able to infect humans?
And meanwhile, what is going on in the Congo?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. “Unknown Disease: Event Description.” Weekly Bulletin on Outbreaks and Other Emergencies. February 16, 2025.
2. Patrick N. Bisimwa, Lionel K. Ishara, Dieudonné S. Wasso, Fabrice Bantuzeko, Ronald Tonui, Ahadi B. Bwihangane. “Detection and genetic characterization of African swine fever virus (ASFV) in clinically infected pigs in two districts in South Kivu province, Democratic Republic Congo.” Science Direct, March 2021.
3. “Information on Swine/Variant Influenza: About Human Infections with Variant Influenza Viruses.” cdc.gov, last updated June 27, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/swine-flu/variant-flu-in-humans/index.html#:~:text=The%202009%20H1N1%20influenza%20A,human%20seasonal%20influenza%20A%20virus.