I wouldn't really take anything down as fact at the moment. The region is a healthcare desert that has a pretty bad history of malnourishment, so even if what the reports say is true, it's not something that would be applicable to other parts of the world.

From the couple articles that I've read about, there's a lot of stuff being reported that's probably not coming from a reliable source.

Most are saying it's some kind of flu-like symptoms, and the disease is unknown, but the WHO director in the area has said they won't have any more information for the next 48 hours because they haven't been able to test yet.

There's also reports of deaths from pulmonary complications, but also reports of deaths from lack of blood transfusions..... Not sure why someone would require a blood transfusion for flu-like symptoms, so my guess is there's not a lot of reliable reporting coming out ATM.

[–] PeachyMcPeachface@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 2 weeks ago

I mean the DRC has a huge population of child slaves that mine cobalt. Bad living conditions and inadequate healthcare are the perfect storm to spread disease