One of the Congo's main exports is "bushmeat" from crocodiles, turtles, chimpanzees, and other exotic animals which are slaughtered and sold in the country's own thriving wet markets.
Any of these animals could be harboring a dangerous new virus just waiting to cross over to humans, and the fact that the meat is then shipped all over the world is of great concern to experts.
Doctors in Kinshasa are currently treating a woman showing signs of hemorrhagic fever.
Ebola victim's grave
Doctors in the Congo worry about the development of a deadly new 'Disease X'
They're testing her for Ebola, but they're worried she could be patient zero of a new "Disease X" with the potential to spread as quickly as a coronavirus - but also the terrifying mortality rate of Ebola, between 50 and 90%.
"We've all got to be frightened," Dr. Dadin Bonkole, who is treating the patient, told CNN.
"Ebola was unknown. Covid was unknown. We have to be afraid of new diseases."
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