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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Matt Watts

Congo mystery illness: 53 people die within hours of 'hemorrhagic fever' symptoms - with first victims eating a bat

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.

The interval between the onset of symptoms - which include fever, vomiting and internal bleeding - and death has been 48 hours in most cases and "that's what's really worrying," said Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring centre.

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