A mystery disease with a fatality rate higher than COVID-19 has broken out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and while the global pandemi

Mysterious outbreak with high fatality rate in the DRC could imperil tech supply chains

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2024-12-09 23:00:02

A mystery disease with a fatality rate higher than COVID-19 has broken out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and while the global pandemic risk is currently considered to be low, some of the world's biggest tech giants may want to dust off those pandemic supply chain disruption plans.

There have been 406 cases of the mysterious disease reported in the DRC's southwestern Kwango Province since October 24, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Sunday. Of the known infections, 31 people – mostly children – have died, giving the disease a case fatality ratio of 7.6 percent, seven times greater than the estimated 1 percent of COVID-19 infections that have proved fatal.

That estimate may be low, however. "There have been several additional deaths outside of health facilities [that] still need to be investigated, characterized, and verified," the WHO noted.

Symptoms of the unidentified disease include fever, headache, cough, runny nose, and body aches, with victims in fatal cases also exhibiting difficulty breathing, anemia, and signs of acute malnutrition.