Rare plague kills 60 in Congo

A rare form of plague has killed at least 61 people around a diamond mine in the remote wilds of north-east Congo.

Officials fear hundreds more who fled into the forests to escape the contagion are infected and dying, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said today.

WHO doctor Eric Bertherat said the outbreak has been building since December around a mine near Zobia, 170 miles north of Kisangani, the capital of the vast Oriental province.

Nearly all the 7,000 miners have abandoned the infected mine and sought refuge in the world’s second-largest tropical rain forest, all but cut off from the outside world.

Security fears – mainly from bandits and militia leftover from Congo’s five-year war – have also slowed the international response, Bertherat said.

Plague is spread mainly by fleas, and causes an infection in the lungs that slowly suffocates its victims.

If caught in time, it can be treated with antibiotics.