& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Fleas Brine Surat to a Halt

D. Walia writes from Bombay
***Few diseases are more feared than The Plague. An epidemic earlier this century killed 1.3 million people. But, reports Gemini News Service, though highly infectious, the penumonlc version which has broken out in India Is curable with speedy administration of the right antibiotic.***
THE current outbreak of highly infections penu monk plague literally flew into India through the door according to villager Vashltha Langhe
He unlocked the door ol his barn which had liern shut for a long time and says village headman Sonajl Langhe. a swarm of fleas covered him and made htm run In panic .Since then the whole area surrounding his house and tight up to liie main road has been infested with fleas
People have been on the run ever since to escape being attacked by these pests
Plague can be carried by rats and is spread to humans by the rat ITea
Langhe says the Incident occurred on August 5 and that he had reported it to the health centre nearest to the village of Mamala in Maharashtra state
The director of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases. K K Dutta, also claims that the Maharashtra government was warned in early August about the danger ot an outbreak of plague In the wake ol last year's earthquake in Latin Maharashtra state. He says that the warning to keep a vigil was ignored
From Maharashtra the disease is believed to have spread to neighbouring states, espe cialiy to the industrial town of Surat in Gujarat, home to mi-nrani workers from all over thr country As these workers fled ihe city, which has a population of about two million they took ihe plague with them
1'liough estimates are fuzzy
IS believed that hundreds of thousands of people left their homes in Surat. Every day brought new photographs and reports of people rushing to the railway station, at which trains were no longer stopping.
Bv the last week in September more than 60 deaths had been reported tn the city with another 500 people undergoing treatment in hospital and clinics.
Surat s 300.000 textile
>ons and diamond cutting centres ground to a hall as the
government declared the area plauge-afiected and ordered industrial establishments to shut down operations until the first week of October. Industry chiefs put the.cost'of closures at $ 66 million a day
Union Health Minister B Shankaranand and Gujarat Chief Minister Chhabiidas Mehta and senior health officials went to Sural on September 25 and declared that the plague had been i on-tained. Shankaranand promised to "flood'' Surat with medicines and said that he had been specially asked by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao to visit the afflicted. Eight million capsules of the antibiotic tetracycline were flown to the city.
By then, panic had spread
to oilier areas where cases were Ireing reported.
Three people were found to be suffering from plague in a Bombay hospital, prompting I he city authorities to order a mass screening exercise, and three cases were reported in Delhi.
There was an immediate run on tetracycline in both cities. and the price Of 30 rupee rat traps rose five-fold.
Seven districts in south and central Gujarat were declared "plague hit". In Rajasthan, which borders Gujarat, vil lagers launched an intensive drive to kill rats.
Though the west was the worst hit part of the country, fear of the disease caused the authorities in eastern states thousands of kilometres away
to take preventive measures
As the authorities struggled to contain the spread ol the disease — mindful of the 1907 plague outbreak in India which killed 1.3 million people — several countries, including Pakistan, Hong Kong. South Korea. Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, said they would examine all travellers arriving from India.
Saudi Arabia. Oman, Kuwait. Bahrain and Qatar announced they were considering medical tests at points of entry to prevent the plague from spread Ing through the lens of thou sands of Indian workers who work In the region.
— Gemini News
D WALIA is an Indian Journalist specialising in environmental issues.