Doctors sound alarm as mystery 'crying disease' deaths rise to 60 with 1,000 infected | 27 Feb 2025 | The World Health Organization has 'deepened' its investigation into a mystery outbreak in the Congo that is causing international alarm. A new report revealed there have been at least 1,096 illnesses in the Western Congo -- double the previous week -- and 60 fatalities, up from 53. Many of the patients are dying within 48 hours of symptoms appearing and known threats viruses such as Ebola and Marburg have been ruled out. The first patients were reported in late January in Equateur province, in the north-west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with hundreds of cases detected since. The exact cause of the illnesses remains unknown but about half the patients have tested positive for malaria... A fatality rate has not been revealed, but Ebola kills about 25 to 90 percent of those it infects while Marburg kills 24 to 88 percent.