this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 253 points 1 week ago (9 children)

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

You’re kidding me

[–] [email protected] 108 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Inb4 congo virus lab conspiracy theory

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week 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.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 week ago

EBFO? Eat a bat and find out.

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[–] [email protected] 96 points 1 week ago (7 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 168 points 1 week ago (10 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 98 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Have a nice day.

I don't think I will

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yeah no thanks, you have a nice day 🤣

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why don’t you both have a nice day? 😤

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago

That quote doesn't tell us anything about the incubation period unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 week ago (5 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (9 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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?

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago

Asymptomatic until ready then the whole tree in one minute

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago

Not with that attitude

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Note to self: Do NOT eat bats. Even if Mom says, "We're having bat tonight".

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If it flaps, you slaps. Amen.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Fuck yes! A deadly pandemic without long drawn out suffering? Sign me up!

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago (10 children)

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... 😒

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago

Yeah those 48 hours don’t look too fun either though.

Feel awful for those affected.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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!

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Don't even need that much; just stop eating them.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago (7 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 week ago (17 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago

Frankly, she'll be better off.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 week ago (39 children)

Because they need to eat.

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

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 week 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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago

Pretty sure you eat anything possible when you're starving, and these children may have been.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

We ordered the one that infects "red hat", not "fed bat". Blame a bad connection, but we're not paying for this Congo Labs. Try again. (Edit: forgot /s)

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (5 children)

ITT: People that think only bats get human-transmissible diseases.

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