Plague Epidemic In Central Java

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31615, 28 February 1968, Page 15

Plague Epidemic In Central Java

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) DJAKARTA, February 27. The World Health Organisation is rushing about 5000 doses of vaccine to the province of Central Java, where nearly 100 people are believed to have died of plague since last August, the Indonesian Health Ministry announced today.

A team of medical specialists called in from the United States at the Government’s request, has already left for the stricken areas to try to

help contain the epidemic, which has occurred in Indonesia’s most densely populated province. The Health Ministry announcement said that barracks are being set up to isolate suspected cases, and that the authorities have sprayed D.D.T. in two affected districts to kill the fleas which carry the disease from rats to men. Rat control measures are also being carried out in five districts as well as the port areas of Central Java, the announcement adds.

The visiting American specialists were told at a briefing in Djakarta yesterday that only three cases of plague had been confirmed, but the Health Ministry statement says investigations recently carried out showed that 28 people who died in Central Java between January 13 and February 13 showed possible plague symptoms. Further investigations revealed that a total of 93 people in the province had died after showing similar symptoms since last August. The Ministry’s announcement says that before the present outbreak no reports of plague had been received since 1959. The new epidemic appears to be centred in the Bojolali region of Central Java, having spread down from the nearby mountains. The district around Solo, one of Central Java's largest towns, is also involved.

No Stalin. The British actor, Paul Scofield, has agreed to portray President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the American, Orson Welles, will be asked to play Winston Churchill in a new Soviet film about the liberation of Europe. But the film’s director, Yury Nikolayev, made no mention of Stalin.—Moscow, February 27.