The plague has hit India hard. In the pandemic of the 1890s, more than 1 million people in India died. In outbreaks between 1949 and 1959, 59,000 people died. Then in 1994 plague struck India again.
First, it was the bubonic plague in the Beed district of India which is 300 km southeast of Bombay. Health authorities gave out Tetracycline capsules. They sprayed with insecticides. Tribesmen were brought in to catch rats.
Then pneumonic plague broke out in the city of Surat. It is 250 km north of Bombay. Two million people live in this polluted industrial city. There is little sanitation. A lot of people sleep in the streets. Garbage piles up. Recent floods had left a lot of animal carcasses about.
Thousands of plague cases were reported in Surat. The death toll started to climb. Shops, offices, schools and cinemas closed. People wrapped scarves around their heads to protect themselves. Hundreds of thousands of people fled from the city. Some were private doctors and nurses and other health aides. A lot of them headed for Bombay,
The plague spread to other places. Neighbouring countries began to close their land borders and stop air connections. Other countries posted medical watches at airports. Eventually, the plague tailed off.
