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Pneumonic Plague Kills Scores in Congo Outbreak

KINSHASA, Congo -- A rare form of plague has killed at least 61 people at a diamond mine in the remote wilds of northeast Congo, and authorities fear hundreds more who fled into the forests to escape the contagion are infected and dying, the World Health Organization said Friday. Eric Bertherat, a doctor for the U.N. health agency, said the outbreak has been building since December around a mine near Zobia, 170 miles north of Kisangani, the capital of the vast Oriental province. Nearly all the 7,000 miners have abandoned the infected area and sought refuge in the world's second-largest tropical rain forest, all but cut off from the outside world. Security fears -- mainly from bandits and militia left over from Congo's five-year war -- also have slowed international response, Bertherat said.

Plague is spread mainly by fleas and causes an infection in the lungs that slowly suffocates its victims. If caught in time, it can be treated with antibiotics. Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague and is transmitted to people through the bite of an infected flea. It usually is spread by rodents. It does not spread person to person. Pneumonic plague -- the kind in the current outbreak -- is rarer but also more easily transmitted from person to person through coughing or close contact.

Bertherat, speaking to reporters by telephone from Geneva, said plague commonly is found in this region of northern Congo, but an outbreak this large was unusual. Unlike the deadly Ebola virus, which also is found in the dark forests of Congo, Bertherat said this outbreak of plague was unlikely to spread too quickly, given the remote and isolated terrain. "It's still a large concern," Bertherat said, "because these are cases moving elsewhere."

If it get's into a crowded city, look out..

Bertherat and a 10-member team of WHO doctors will arrive in Kisangani on Monday to prepare for a journey into the forests. He said doctors from the aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, already were there, treating miners they could locate. The forests have long been both a refuge and a death trap for Congolese running from war, disaster and disease. More than 1 million people still live rough in the forests after fleeing Congo's devastating 1998-2002 war. Aid groups say nearly 1,000 people still die every day from war-induced starvation and disease. According to the WHO, the incubation time for plague is two to six days. Victims develop a fever and cough. Breathing becomes difficult as lungs fill with fluid. Unless antibiotics are given within the first 24 hours, death can come as quickly as within 48 hours.
Posted by: Steve 2005-02-18

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