Pneumonic Plague Outbreak In Eastern Congo - WP

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CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Feb. 18 -- 'At least 61 miners in eastern Congo have died and hundreds have become ill from what appears to be the largest outbreak in 80 years of a highly virulent, airborne version of plague, international health officials reported Friday.

The officials said thousands more workers had fled an open-pit diamond mine that is the epicenter of the outbreak, possibly spreading the disease deep into a rural province with few health facilities.

"It can pop up in many places now," said Marian van der Snoek, a medical official with the Swiss-based aid group Medair, who spoke by telephone from her office in Bunia, in Congo's northeastern corner. "We don't know where these people have fled."

The World Health Organization, the Congolese government and several aid agencies are seeking to determine the extent of the epidemic and to train medical workers in the region to spot the disease, which attacks the lungs and is spread mainly by coughing. Left untreated, the disease kills the overwhelming majority of its victims."

EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36428-2005Feb18.html

[Dark]

1. Let's hope their containment succeeds. n/t