The CDC is closely monitoring an "unknown disease” that has killed dozens in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the agency said in a statement on Monday.

World Health Organization officials said the outbreak appeared to originate from a village where three children died after reportedly eating a bat carcass.

The World Health Organization speculated that a mass poisoning event was behind the deaths of 60 people. But African experts suspect a more mundane cause.

Over 50 deaths have been linked to an "unknown disease" in the Democratic Republic of Congo since January. Nearly half occurred within 48 hours of the symptoms' start.

An unknown illness first discovered in three children who ate a bat has rapidly killed more than 50 people in northwestern Congo over the past five weeks, health experts say.

The outbreak has been traced, tentatively, to three children who ate a bat, the W.H.O. said, and known threats like Ebola and Marburg have been ruled out.

Gutting USAID is already having a devastating impact around the world. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, teams that would normally be racing to identify a fatal sickness are gone.

Is a new virus causing a disease outbreak and deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or is the cause already known to science?

Reports of a large number of unexplained illnesses and deaths in Equateur province have garnered international attention, likely in part because this region of DRC has had several Ebola outbreaks in recent years.