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BUBONIC PLAGUE, - LIBYA: (AL BUTNAN)
Friday, 19 June, 2009
Promed has reported that Libyan authorities have reported an outbreak of bubonic plague in the Mediterranean coastal town of Tubruq, and the World Health Organization (WHO) was sending a team to investigate, a WHO official said on Tuesday [16 Jun 2009].
The cases, approximately 16 to 18 have been reported, would be the 1st in more than 2 decades in Libya of the disease known in medieval times as the Black Death, according to John Jabbour, a Cairo-based emerging diseases specialist at WHO. "It is reported as bubonic plague," Jabbour said, adding WHO still didn't have "a full picture" of the situation. "It is officially reported by Libya... Tomorrow [17 Jun 2009], the WHO is deploying a mission to Libya to investigate the whole situation, to see how many of the cases are confirmed, or not confirmed." He said preliminary information from Libyan authorities showed 16 to 18 reported cases including one death, and that Tripoli had asked for assistance from the global health body.
Tubruq, where the new cases were reported, is approximately 125 km [78 miles] from the Egyptian border and was the scene of previous plague cases decades ago, Jabbour said. Globally the WHO reports about 1000 to 3000 plague cases each year, with most in the last 5 years occurring in Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
