Troops battle to contain India's outbreak of plague

India's first epidemic of human plague in 28 years has broken out in two western states of the country, creating panic and sending health authorities scrambling to control its spread. The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in New Delhi last week confirmed two outbreaks - one of bubonic plague in a region of Maharashtra state that was devastated by an earthquake last year, the other of pneumonic plague in the industrial town of Surat in Gujurat state. There were reports earlier this week, however, that the number of new cases in Surat was falling, although epidemiologists are uncertain whether the disease has been contained. Two patients in Delhi who had passed through Surat were being investigated for the disease after presenting with symptoms of plague.

Indian security forces have been sent into Surat to prevent people …