CONGO PLAGUE
February 1st, 2005
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) has reported an outbreak of pneumonic plague at a "very unsanitary (diamond) mine" in Zobia, Ituri district, in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Since late December, said the WHO, 61 diamond miners had died from the disease, which infects humans from the air they breathe. It added 7,000 miners had worked at the mine, which was only re-opened on December 16; the first case occurred on December 20.
THE WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) has reported an outbreak of pneumonic plague at a "very unsanitary (diamond) mine" in Zobia, Ituri district, in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Since late December, said the WHO, 61 diamond miners had died from the disease, which infects humans from the air they breathe. It added 7,000 miners had worked at the mine, which was only re-opened on December 16; the first case occurred on December 20.
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