New cases of Congo plague but appears contained

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Doctors have found at least 60 new cases of Plague in eastern Congo but the disease does not appear to be spreading beyond the mining town where it broke out, aid workers said on Monday.

Pneumonic Plague, which is highly contagious, broke out two months ago in Zobia, a town that was home to at least 7,000 diamond miners, some 300 km (186 miles) north of the provincial capital Kisangani.

"There are still cases coming into Zobia but these are restricted to the mining area. It does not seem to have spread any further,” Eric Bertherat, head of a World Health Organisation team, told Reuters by phone from Zobia on Monday.

Bertherat could not give any new figures, but aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres said it had registered new cases in the town, which is in Congo’s lawless Ituri district, where fighting over minerals has raged for years.

“We have registered 61 fresh cases, including one death,” Philippe Havet, MSF’s emergency coordinator said on Monday.

“There were 15 new cases yesterday, but these people are limited to the mine, no further.”

Doctors had feared the disease might have spread when 4,000 of the miners left Zobia and disappeared into the bush two weeks ago, fleeing the disease and clashes involving various factions of the security forces guarding the mining area.

Pneumonic Plague infects victims’ lungs, can be easily transmitted between people and kills within 48 hours if not treated immediately, doctors say.

Aid agencies and government health officials have scoured the bush for infected miners who may have fled Zobia but say they have found none so far.

Initial reports suggested that 61 people had died in the outbreak. Bertherat said all the recorded deaths are being re-examined by the teams on the ground now to reconfirm the causes of those deaths.

“Although we are finding more cases in Zobia, it seems that, overall, there are less cases than the 400 we originally thought there were,” he said.

“We are also trying to change the way that people deal with their dead. The local custom here is for the body to be washed and dressed but this is very dangerous as the Plague is so contagious,” he said.

Congo is struggling to recover from a five-year war and decades of chaos, which left its health system in tatters.

The conflict in the former Zaire was officially declared over in 2003 but clashes still erupt, especially in the east.

An international aid agency said last year 1,000 people continue to die every day, mostly from hunger and disease, on top of the 3.8 million who died since the war began in 1998. 

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