Fear of plague leads to tighter border with Turkmenistan

Tashkent is tightening border controls and migration in a bid to prevent the possible spread of plague from neighbouring Turkmenistan, according to a health official. "We recently held a session of the national anti-epidemic commission, where we adopted a number of measures to prevent the spread of plague from Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan," Nurmat Atabekov, head of the sanitary and epidemiological control department, told IRIN from the capital, Tashkent, on Monday. His comments followed recent media reports claiming that there had been reported cases of plague in the northern Turkmen province of Dashoguz, bordering Uzbekistan. "We got information from mass media reports that the situation in border regions of Turkmenistan [with regard to plague] is complicated, but we haven't been able to get official confirmation from Turkmenistan," Atabekov added. "Normally in such cases, quarantine and restrictive measures are taken. We are trying to minimise the migration of the population [in border regions], preventing [trade in] cattle and livestock products, and strengthening health control of the people crossing the border," the Uzbek health official maintained. Plague is an infectious disease of animals and humans caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It is transmitted to humans through the bite of a flea carrying the bacterium or by handling an infected animal. Millions of people in Europe died from plague in the Middle Ages when homes and places of work were overrun by flea-infested rats. Recent outbreaks have shown that plague may reoccur in areas that have long remained free of the disease. Untreated, mortality - particularly from pneumonic plague - may reach high levels. When rapidly diagnosed and promptly treated, plague may be successfully managed with antibiotics such as streptomycin and tetracycline, reducing mortality from 60 percent to less than 15 percent. According to the Uzbek Health Ministry, some staff members of its quarantine and contagious infections service and 28 epidemiological teams were now working in the steppe areas of Khorezm, Navo'i and Surkhandarya provinces, Karakalpakstan and Ustyurt plateau, bordering Turkmenistan. Moreover, in Khorezm province and Karakalpakstan, seven anti-epidemic mobile teams have been sent, who were taking necessary preventive measures on the ground. Also in an effort to avert plague, cattle breeders, geologists and oil workers have been vaccinated against plague along with some 15,000 camels in the region. "We conduct continuous monitoring of the rodent population for vermin. In these regions, plague bacteria is being detected in both fleas and rodents," Atabekov said. According to him, in the former Soviet Union there were 16 areas that were a natural foci for plague and one of them was in Central Asia. "The whole territory of Turkmenistan is an endemic foci of plague. Therefore, they should not ignore that," he said. "If there are cases of the infection, they should immediately let us know," he noted, adding that the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries earlier agreed on sharing epidemiological information. "We agreed that we would regularly provide information on the situation with regard to infectious diseases. In cases of quarantine and extremely dangerous infectious diseases, we are to inform each other immediately. But unfortunately Turkmenistan doesn't provide that information." "We don't know what the overall situation in terms of infectious diseases and of extremely dangerous infectious diseases, particularly plague, is [there]," he stressed. "During Soviet times, there wasn't an anti-plague service in Turkmenistan. An anti-plague station in Astrakhan [Russia] was carrying out those activities for them. But now, in the post-Soviet era, we don't know the pace of the anti-plague work there, the scope of it and whether it is really being carried out."