Bubonic plague kills 9

DAR ES SALAAM – Bubonic plague has killed nine people in northern Tanzania since February, a regional official said yesterday.

The plague outbreak was first reported in one village in late February, but has since spread to six others and infected 72 people, Salash Toure, a medical official in Manyara region, near the Kenyan border, told AFP. “The disease can easily be eradicated through increased health education on the use of pesticides and the destruction of vectors (rats or other rodents),” Toure said, adding that local authorities needed the pesticides to treat it.”The government has already dispatched the required amount of pesticide,” to the remote region, Raphael Kalinga, an official with the health ministry, told AFP.The disease is endemic in some parts of northern Tanzania, he added.Bubonic plague is a potentially fatal bacterial infection which causes swollen and tender lymph nodes, high fever, and chills.It is carried by small rodents and fleas that live on them, but is not spread between humans.Nampa-AFP”The disease can easily be eradicated through increased health education on the use of pesticides and the destruction of vectors (rats or other rodents),” Toure said, adding that local authorities needed the pesticides to treat it.”The government has already dispatched the required amount of pesticide,” to the remote region, Raphael Kalinga, an official with the health ministry, told AFP.The disease is endemic in some parts of northern Tanzania, he added.Bubonic plague is a potentially fatal bacterial infection which causes swollen and tender lymph nodes, high fever, and chills.It is carried by small rodents and fleas that live on them, but is not spread between humans.Nampa-AFP

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