4d ago

A mystery illness in Congo has killed more than 50 people hours after they felt sick

apnews.com A mystery illness in Congo has killed more than 50 people hours after they felt sick

Health experts say an unknown illness first discovered in three children who ate a bat has rapidly killed more than 50 people in northwestern Congo over the past five weeks.

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — An unknown illness first discovered in three children who ate a bat has rapidly killed more than 50 people in northwestern Congo over the past five weeks, health experts say.

Public Health @mander.xyz

Lee Duna @lemmy.nz

20h ago

A mystery illness in Congo has killed more than 50 people hours after they felt sick

apnews.com /article/congo-mystery-unknown-illness-cd8b1fdcb3b2ed032968b2c6044dc6db

24 4

World News @lemmy.world

HellsBelle @sh.itjust.works

4d ago

An unknown illness kills over 50 people in part of Congo with hours between symptoms and death

apnews.com /article/congo-mystery-unknown-illness-cd8b1fdcb3b2ed032968b2c6044dc6db

655 220

11 comments

New Prion Disease 2025 Bingo Box ✅
Well that only tracks if they cannabalised the diseased patent 0s.
I'm gonna go re-watch Kingdom (Korea-2019) again...

I know it's probably cultural, but how do you look at a bat and think to yourself that looks delicious?
- Hunger drives people to try Anything and if it doesnt kill you, theyll keep doing it.
- They probably didn't eat it because they thought it would taste good.
- What makes them ugly?

Did the bat they ate fly out of a research facility?
Edit: I'm asking out of fear here people, not political hoohaaery, i genuinely wanted good faith responses, I'm not trying to do a crazy anti reality gotcha.
- That’s basically just bats in general, in terms of zoonosis. They live in giant colonies (tons of opportunities for new mutations) and are natural reservoirs of ebola and other diseases.
  Don’t eat bat if you have the choice not to, basically.
  
  Plus there's the fact that while their immune system is very mammalian, they have a series of novel adaptations that make them nearly perfect populations for particularly nasty viruses.
  https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bats-immune-system-viruses-ebola-marburg-people
- If you'd like to learn more about bats and zoonotic diseases (viruses that jump from animal to human) I recommend Spillover by David Quammen. I think your question was understandable and people should respond with information rather than downvotes. I think people forget that because something is well known to them, doesn't mean it's common knowledge, especially given the amount of conflicting information surrounding covid.
- I'm sure there are research facilities in rural Congo.
  
  There's gigantic Dutch research libraries.

11 comments