In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a mystery disease has claimed the lives of over fifty people within hours of the onset of symptoms.

According to the WHO and medical professionals in the DRC, most cases had a 48-hour lag between the onset of symptoms and death. The WHO says the outbreak is ‘a significant public health threat’.

As of Monday, there have been 419 cases reported, including 53 fatalities, and officials believe the outbreak started on January 21.

There is a “exceptionally high fatality rate” in one area, where two-thirds of those who got the mystery disease are known to have died.

The first outbreak began in the town of Boloko after three kids allegedly consumed a dead bat, according to the WHO’s Africa office.

They passed away 48 hours after the onset of hemorrhagic fever symptoms, which include fever, bleeding, headache, joint pain, and other symptoms.

Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, told the Associated Press, “That’s what’s really worrying,” referring to the victims’ rapid deaths.

According to the WHO, outbreaks were reported in two health zones: the Bolomba and Basankusu regions.

Forty-five people died out of the 419 cases that were reported in the Basankusu health zone.

In contrast, there were 12 cases and eight fatalities in the Bolomba health zone, which accounted for a staggering two-thirds of all cases.

Hemorrhagic fever is most notoriously caused by Ebola.

Doctors warned that President Donald Trump’s CDC purge and ban on communications with the WHO increased the risk of future domestic and international epidemics.

Additionally, WHO officials cautioned that over 60 percent more outbreaks of diseases that spread from animals to humans—for example, through eating them—have occurred in Africa in the past ten years.

Officials did not speculate on the nature of the mystery illness.

But on February 9, when the mystery disease’s second outbreak started in the town of Bomate, officials sent samples from 13 cases for analysis.

Even though some samples tested positive for malaria, all tested negative for Ebola and other hemorrhagic diseases like Marburg and others.

According to the WHO Africa office, the disease has a 12.3 percent fatality rate, which is about ten times higher than it was when Covid first started to spread.

According to health officials, the country’s “weak health care infrastructure increases the risk of further spread, requiring immediate high-level intervention to contain the outbreak” in addition to the outbreaks’ remote location.

Only a few months have passed since the mysterious “Disease X” devastated the Democratic Republic of the Congo and claimed 143 lives there last year. Subsequently, officials determined that it was probably a severe respiratory type of malaria.

At the time, the CDC told DailyMail.com that the disease’s risk was “low” internationally.

The NGO Severe Malaria Observatory reports that malaria is very common in the DRC, killing around 25,000 people in 2022 and affecting 30 million people.

After Nigeria, the DRC had the second-highest number of malaria cases worldwide that year.

There has also been a Mpox outbreak in the country. According to WHO estimates, there have been over 1,000 suspected deaths and over 47,000 suspected illnesses to date.

Trump’s executive orders to cut off the CDC from the WHO might allow one of the worst illnesses in the world to enter the United States, according to a former White House physician.

The sister of Joe Biden’s former press secretary Jen Psaki, Dr. Stephanie Psaki, expressed concern that it would create an opening for harmful illnesses like Ebola and Marburg viruses to enter the United States.

There is no vaccine or cure for Marburg, which causes bleeding from orifices like the eyes, ears and mouth, and the only hope of protecting Americans ‘is to halt it at its source,’ said Dr Pskai.

Last month, Trump issued an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing the US from WHO, but it did not take immediate effect.

Leaving WHO requires the assent of Congress and that the US meet its financial obligations for the current fiscal year.

The US also must issue a one-year notice.

His administration also directed federal health authorities to suspend most communications with the public through at least the end of the month.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Robert Kennedy Jr. cut 1,300 jobs at the CDC in his new capacity as health chief.

The newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services sacked nearly half of the famous squad of ‘disease detectives’ during his first day on the job, setting the scene for a pared-down department moving forward.

The whole incoming batch of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) was also reportedly told they are no longer needed.