Mysterious Burundi outbreak claims five lives as WHO investigates

Five people died and 28 fell ill in Burundi's Mpanda district from an unidentified illness. The WHO and local health authorities are racing to identify the pathogen after ruling out Ebola and Marburg, with tests for Rift Valley fever, dengue, yellow fever, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, and leptospirosis underway; cases have so far been limited to households and their contacts, and a joint UN team is deployed to coordinate containment and cross-border planning as Burundi remains at risk of infectious outbreaks amid high cholera activity.