ULAN
BATOR (Reuters) - Mongolia has brought under control a series of
anthrax outbreaks in which two people were infected with the highly
contagious disease, civil defense officials said Wednesday.
``We have
stopped the spread of the disease and thousands of animals are
being vaccinated,'' senior civil defense official Ikhbayar told
Reuters.
``Urgent measures
are being taken because anthrax can be transferred to people,''
he said. ``Officials are paying a lot of attention to this.''
Two people,
a man and a woman, were treated for the disease in Lun county,
some 80 miles from Ulan Bator. One was in satisfactory condition,
but the state of the other was not immediately known, officials
said.
The disease
had also occurred in four other areas and tens of thousands of
animals had been vaccinated, Ikhbayar said.
The movement
of animals in and out of the affected areas had been banned until
all livestock, on which many Mongolians depend, were vaccinated,
he said.
Mongolia's
herds have been devastated over the last year by drought followed
by an unusually harsh winter, which buried under snow the grasslands
on which they usually feed.
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