North Africa: Bubonic Plague in Libya Makes Neighbors Nervous

By Larry Habegger | Permalink | No Comments | July 1st, 2009 | Trackback

An outbreak of bubonic plague in Libya has neighboring countries acting to prevent spread of the disease across their borders. Algeria has already seen 50 cases near its border with Libya and has tightened medical surveillance there. Their concerns are that Algerian Bedouin are crossing into Libya and returning with the disease or the fleas that spread the disease. Plague can also be spread through handling contaminated hosts (usually rodents), and officials believe that some cases could have been caused by eating contaminated camel meat, incidences of which were reported in Saudi Arabia in 2005. Health officials are also taking precautions in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, where authorities closed the border with Libya after confirmed reports of plague cases in the city of Tubruq. Officials also placed the Egyptian port city of Sallum under quarantine. Unlike pneumonic plague, bubonic plague does not pass from human to human, so avoiding fleas, infected hosts or bad meat should prevent the disease.

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