The interval between the onset of symptoms and death has been 48 hours in the majority of cases, and “that’s what’s really worrying,” Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring center, told The Associated Press.

The latest disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo began on Jan. 21, and 419 cases have been recorded including 53 deaths.

According to the WHO’s Africa office, the first outbreak in the town of Boloko began after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours following hemorrhagic fever symptoms.

  • TheRealKuni@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    22 minutes ago

    ate a bat and died within 48 hours following hemorrhagic fever symptoms

    Are we seeing another Ebola outbreak? Or is this a different viral hemorrhagic fever?

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    7 hours ago

    They had a previous outbreak in December that was diagnosed as malaria. This outbreak is not that one but malaria has not been confirmed as the culprit.

    In any case, please don’t go to Congo to bring whatever it is to the rest of the world. Let WHO experts figure it out…if only a retard president had not pulled funding for that vital global health organization.

    • collapse_already@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      5 hours ago

      I am thinking a Congo vacation might be the cheapest thing I can do to save America. Go straight fro the Congo to a Republican fundraiser.

  • Lumiluz@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    69
    ·
    21 hours ago

    The year is 2024.

    Trump is elected president.

    Somewhere in the world, a butterfly flaps to the left instead of the right.

    A bat follows it.

  • the_q@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    22 hours ago

    The earth will be ok. One day we’ll be gone and she’ll be just fine.

    • HalfSalesman@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 hours ago

      Its too bad I don’t care about the rock we’re floating around in space on and mostly care about me and my loved ones.

      • the_q@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 hours ago

        Oh you didn’t need to tell us you care more about your stuff then anyone else’s, bud.

        • HalfSalesman@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          59 minutes ago

          Fine, and the the innocent people on it. Jesus fucking Christ.

          My point was that Earth itself is just an object with things living on it.

          I might be aggressively fucking angry at like 90% of the voting eligible populace in America but there are a ton of other people that don’t fit into that category that don’t hold my ire.

    • coffeeisblack@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      16 hours ago

      People say save the earth, save the earth. The earth is fine. The people are fucked. We’re going away, folks.

      • Victor@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        15 hours ago

        I’m pretty sure when people say that they mean “save the [current state of the] earth [so we can continue living on it together]”.

  • HughJorgens@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    46
    ·
    23 hours ago

    If you want to stay up for a few nights, read The Hot Zone, which is about Ebola. Those bats are gonna kill us all someday, and there are so many of them!

    • HellsBelleOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      54
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      23 hours ago

      It’s not the bat’s fault really. If us humans would stop encroaching further into their territory and stopped warming the planet to the point of no return, we might not be having such extreme issues with zoonotic viruses we’ve never encountered before trying to kill us.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        48 minutes ago

        This has nothing to do with climate change that generic area of the world has always beet stock-full of nasty diseases. Even considered by African standards of unlucky geography the Kongo basin is triply fucked.

        • HellsBelleOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          19
          ·
          20 hours ago

          If people aren’t living in the bat’s territory they wouldn’t be eating them either.

          • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            8
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            20 hours ago

            Tbf, even if we gathered all people in one giant city to stop encroaching, bugs would follow us due to our food storage/waste and blood, and bats would follow the yummy bugs and make homes in the structures we make, which like for pigeons are often good for bats too. Bats, rats, and some birds you’ll never be able to really escape by avoiding nature because they follow us or something else that does.

            • AoxoMoxoA@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              9
              ·
              18 hours ago

              I was tripping on shrooms on day, looking at the grass and noticed an ant scurring around then another and little, tiny beetle looking bugs. Then i looked out across a field and saw gnats,bees ,wasps , flys, 20 or 30 birds in the distance , a couple squirrels and thought about the worms under my feet and realized this is their world we just live in it. We are outnumbered a million to one and they don’t need us at all

              • VerifiedSource
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                9 hours ago

                For your next psychedelic trip, think about your gut microbiome.

              • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                17 hours ago

                And no matter how hard some try, they’ll never escape it all.

                I prefer to live as close to it as possible instead, and as in harmony with it as possible. I do like electricity and running water though lol, but I’d rather be amongst nature than my “fellow” man any day.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    59
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    When this civilization falls and the next one is beginning there’s going to be a religious ban on eating bats.

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    80
    ·
    1 day ago

    Unless there’s a longer dormant period where this is contagious, but shows no symptoms, this disease kills too quickly to become a world pandemic.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      9 hours ago

      That’s true with a higher mortality rate.

      It has killed around 10 percent of victims, so it can be spread by the rest.

    • Kushan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      55
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      Anyone that’s played plague Inc knows how this goes. It’s not a winning strategy.

      • robbinhood@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        22
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        Yeah but one of these days a virus is going to get smart and start up in New Zealand and Madagascar. Chuck in a long asymptomatic (edit: contagious period) and game over.

        Come to think of it, why haven’t viruses done this yet? What are they, stupid?

        • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          18
          ·
          24 hours ago

          What I never got about this game is that when the virus mutates, ALL copies of that virus mutate in the exact same way. Couldn’t they make a realistic version?

          • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            12
            ·
            21 hours ago

            A realistic version would be pretty boring. That’s basically the same as just working for the CDC.

            • jj4211@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              9 hours ago

              Under this administration, working for the CDC is probably not as boring as it usually is.

          • robbinhood@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            11
            ·
            1 day ago

            Oh shit bro delete this. We don’t need to be giving Trump any ideas.

            It’s a bit of a toss up for me between staying in virus plagued USA or locating to Trump’s new monarchy in Greenland.

        • sadbehr@lemmy.nz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 day ago

          Hello! I’m from New Zealand. Why is the scenario of a virus starting here a bad thing?

          • robbinhood@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            18
            ·
            1 day ago

            It’s a Plague Inc. joke. In this game, you’re the virus/bacteria, or whatever other disease. You guide the virus’s evolution with the aim to destroy humanity.

            The virus slowly spreads across the earth through planes, boats, etc.

            There are a few really isolated spots, including New Zealand, that are hard to get to and they often seal their borders very quickly. When that happens you lose.

            So the smart first step is to start the virus in one of the hard to reach places.

    • VerifiedSource
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      9 hours ago

      Exactly, it can go bat -> livestock/pet -> human just as well.

  • Squorlple@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    244
    ·
    1 day ago

    the first outbreak in the town of Boloko began after three children ate a bat

    You’re kidding me

      • robbinhood@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        1 day ago

        there have been legitimate concerns that the ongoing violence in the DRC could result in lab leaks and whatnot. I believe there are or at least once were some small lab outputs in DRC bush set up to help with monitoring for diseases.

      • robbinhood@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        37
        ·
        1 day ago

        Economic desperation and lack of education. Think back to how dumb humans were just like 400 years ago, which is what 20 generations or something? Essentially no grasp of diseases in the modern sense. We are biologically 99.9999% or whatever the same as them.

        Ebola spread during that ~2015 outbreak in large part because local customs meant washing the dead and otherwise being in close physical contact. Sadly, people simply didn’t know better.

        • Voroxpete
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          18 hours ago

          Also, this is exactly why dismantling USAID was such a phenomenally stupid idea.

          You want more plagues? This is how you get more plagues.

  • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    90
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 day ago

    The interval between the onset of symptoms and death has been 48 hours in the majority of cases, and “that’s what’s really worrying,”

    That’s also great news because it’s easy to identify infections, quarantine, and contain. What would be really worrying is a hemorrhagic fever with an incubation period of 5-21 days a la covid.

    • Peppycito
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      156
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      Just because they died right after showing symptoms does mean that’s when they were infected. Maybe you’re contagious for 3 weeks then cough twice and die.

      Have a nice day.

      • leisesprecher@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        1 day ago

        Can’t we just have a regular old plague that kills like 30% of the population and not that sigma “I don’t really want to kill you” bullshit?

        Covid was so annoying, because it killed too few people for many to care. I don’t want that again.

        • SirSamuel@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          37
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 day ago

          So i know (hope) this is satire. I’m also aware that people latch on to dumb things and propagate them, like Flat Earth and the like. So I’ll clarify that with a 2% morality rate there were literally dead bodies stacking up in the streets in NYC.

          The only reason the right wing propaganda machine was successful in misinforming rural areas was because the administrations efforts to reduce/slow the spread of COVID, haphazard as it was, turned out to be successful in preventing mass deaths like that seen in NYC. And it was a close thing.

          The thing is people are so goddamned gullible, so credulous of their media of choice, that a 30% mortality rate would only fuel more dumbshittery

          • leisesprecher@feddit.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            16
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            1 day ago

            If you’re really careful, you might see that I qualified that statement above

            it killed too few people for many to care

            The emphasis is there for a reason.

            And BTW, that statement is not a joke, but based on actual study results. You know why? Covid having a 2% mortality also means it has a 98% survival rate - much much higher in younger healthier people. Exactly that was the problem. For the vast majority of people covid did not feel like a real threat, because it wasn’t. Long covid and the other long term effects only really came to light in 2021 and later.

            I didn’t shelter in 2020 for myself, but for others. If there is no such thing a society, individuals will act like selfish assholes and don’t wear masks, get vaccinated, etc. If Covid would have caused widespread erectile dysfunction, the entire world would have been shutdown in 5min and nobody would even doubt masks.

            • andrew_bidlaw
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              14
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 day ago

              WHO, governments, responsible media lost the war about representing and reacting to the pandemic right in most places and there weren’t much pushback against misinformation.

              Salting the wound: after antivaxxing became a part of people’s identity, got coupled with their political views, the critical mortality rate to sober up the majority only grew higher.

            • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              23 hours ago

              I avoided it because I don’t like being sick. It sounded like a pretty shit thing to catch, now had it like 4 times but at least after vaccination and it’s been fairly mild.

        • grue@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          1 day ago

          Why yes, actually! The bird flu pandemic should be along any day now (just waiting on that one last mutation to be able to spread between humans), and that one’s projected to have a super-high death rate.

        • floofloof@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 day ago

          Bird flu could be that. By some estimates it has had a 51% mortality rate, compared to COVID’s 1-2%. But if it’s all the same to you, I’d still rather not. Maybe you don’t mind seeing those you care about die in pain, but some of us had enough of that a few years back.

    • modeler@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      28
      ·
      1 day ago

      Absolutely!

      Another example is HIV: Initial infection is just a minor flu, you’re then infectious and active for 5-10 years before becoming seriously ill with AIDS (of course this is for untreated HIV). This allowed the illness to spread for decades adapting to humans before finally being identified in the 80s, killing millions.

      • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        edit-2
        24 hours ago

        Just gonna tack on here that everyone’s favorite presidential whipping boy, ol’ Ronnie shithead Reagan, was partially responsible for allowing it to continue spreading. Hell, his press secretary or some equivalent laughed at the one reporter that actually asked about it and implied the reporter was a homosexual. He also abandoned his buddy Roy Cohn because of it too.

        May he rot in piss.

        • Gigasser@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          13 hours ago

          I’m afraid there may be a resurgence of the HIV denialism movement given that RFK is now secretary of health.

          • VerifiedSource
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            9 hours ago

            HIV denialism

            Because of widespread use PREP/PEP, there’s a growing number of people who stopped using any protection including the aforementioned meds…

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      35
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      1 day ago

      Sadly, that makes this unlikely to go pandemic. If it kills too fast it can’t spread.

      We’ll have to live a little while longer… 😒

      • kautau@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 day ago

        Until some poor sap examining the body gets a tear in his PPE and he gets the mutated version that turns him into a zombie

      • kozy138@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        This guy has definitely played ‘Pandemic’ the flash game

            • toynbee@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              1 day ago

              I believe you’re correct, though I haven’t played any version of it so I’m not an authority.

              This was just meant to be a gentle ribbing, no worries about your actual level of accuracy.

    • JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      21 hours ago

      I’d rather have a few months of major discomfort than the two days of hard-core body horror that they just went through.

  • ElJefe@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    I apologize in advance for my ignorance. But why do people like to eat bats? Are they particularly nutritious? Or is it a matter of access to foods and resources? Are they really yummy? And why didn’t Ozzy contract any weird deadly disease?

    • Wahots@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      33
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      This is why we had programs like USAID. To keep people from starving and eating infected animals harboring endemic viruses we know nothing about.

      Even in the US, it’s highly inadvisable to eat animals/bush meat infected with CWD even if it technically can’t infect humans …yet.

    • Kecessa
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      54
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      Because they need to eat.

      Why do people eat chicken if there’s a risk of getting salmonella?

            • Rooskie91@discuss.online
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              45
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 day ago

              Why not eat something nice and normal that westerners think is normal instead of a bat though? I mean FFS

              Fixed that for you. You know different regions and cultures have different norms for foods, right?

              • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                9
                ·
                1 day ago

                Do they? Most everywhere people eat basically the same shit. Preparation methods vary and there’s substitutions historically based on available resources but globalisation has practically obliterated all that.

                I’m not a westoid BTW I’ve traveled a decent amount.

                • funkless_eck
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  6
                  ·
                  1 day ago

                  people eat basically the same shit

                  Buffalo sauce is a rare sight in Europe, as is white gravy. Americans consider them an everyday occurrence.

              • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                arrow-down
                6
                ·
                1 day ago

                I’m struggling to think of a single component of a hot dog or sausage that isn’t “normal” to eat everywhere in the world except for reasons of religion and even then it depends on what meat was used to make it.

                • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  1 day ago

                  You’re absolutely correct, in fact most food is usually variations on a theme e.g. meat in bread like sandwiches, burgers, burritos, tacos, dumplings… but this isn’t a popular opinion unfortunately.

            • Earthly3739@lemmynsfw.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              27
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 day ago

              You may be surprised to learn that “normal” changes based on your culture and geographic location.

              • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                7
                ·
                edit-2
                1 day ago

                I’ve changed geographic location many times, there’s a huge difference between pickling vs. breading and eating fucking bats.

                Culture is a spook and an excuse for simpletons.

            • Tiger
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              12
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              1 day ago

              You ever eat a hot dog? Crazy stuff in there just as sketchy as bat.

                • Kecessa
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  23 hours ago

                  Do you ask yourself the same thing when eating any other meat or you just have something against other cultures?

            • Kecessa
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              1 day ago

              Unless you don’t eat meat you don’t have much of a leg to stand on right now

                • Kecessa
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  9
                  ·
                  1 day ago

                  Chicken is safe as long as you cook it properly

                  Beef is safe as long as you cook it properly

                  And guess what…

                  Bat is safe as long as you cook it properly

                  People get sick and die from under cooking beef and chicken all the time, will you stop eating it because of that?

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      1 day ago

      is it a matter of access to foods and resources

      This is generally why people eat certain things, yes.