Plague! INDIA, AFRICA CONFRONT THE ULTIMATE ANIMAL CONTROL NIGHTMARE; Tight urban budgets gave rat-catching and trash collection a low priority
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:
SURAT, India––Inadequate animal control service was largely responsible, authorities say, for the most deadly
outbreak of plague worldwide in 28 years at Surat, India. More than 400,000 residents fled the city as the outbreak became
known, creating risk the disease would spread to nearby communities, including Bombay, 160 miles to the north.
Remembering plague outbreaks that killed thousands during the 1940s and 1950s, 950 million Indians feared the worst.
Quarantines, inexpensive prophylactic tetracycline treatments, and fast information-sharing by electronic mail were