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Algeria hit by plague outbreak
Just when you thought things couldnât get worse. EFL:UN health officials are helping Algeria to investigate an outbreak of plague in the west of the country which has claimed at least one life. A team from the World Health Organization and other international bodies went to the Oran region after reports of plague emerged last month. Algeriaâs health ministry has announced 10 laboratory-confirmed cases to date and one probable case. France, the former colonial power (snicker) which has a large ethnic Algerian community, has tightened sanitary controls at its ports to guard against contaminated rats and insects. As opposed to their domestic rats and bugs. The WHO said preliminary studies had been carried out but more work was needed to establish the source of the plague which has taken both bubonic and septicaemic forms. Of the 10 confirmed cases, eight were of bubonic plague and two of the deadlier septicaemic kind, one of which proved fatal. Deadlier than bubonic plague? The French health ministry said in a recent report that no cases of plague had surfaced in France itself but it was taking precautions at ports. It also reminded travellers to take greater precautions if visiting areas with a plague risk. Visit beautiful Algeria. Come for the terrorists, stay for the plague! Posted by: Steve 2003-07-11 |
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