/ 19 July 1999

OUTBREAK OF BUBONIC PLAGUE NEAR MALAWI BORDER

THERE’S been an outbreak of bubonic plague in Malawi close to the Mozambican border. British Airways Travel clinics announced on Monday that the Malawian Ministry of Health had confirmed 66 cases of the plague until July 11, but said no deaths had been attributed to the disease. The disease struck seven villages in the southern Nsanje district, which borders Mozambique. Mozambican authorities have detected 200 cases on their side of the border, according to travel clinics medical director Dr Andrew Jamieson. People acquire the disease when bitten by fleas that live on rats.