Victornkd at 16:35, 5 February 2025

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{{Short description|Outbreak of bubonic and pneumonic plague}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
The '''1994 plague in India''' was an outbreak of [[bubonic plague|bubonic]] and [[pneumonic plague]] in south-central and western [[India]] from 26 August to 18 October 1994.<ref name="CDC Plague" /> 693 suspected cases and 56 deaths were reported from the five affected [[States and union territories of India|Indian states]] as well as the [[Union Territory]] of [[Delhi]]. These cases were from [[Maharashtra]] (488 cases), [[Gujarat]] (77 cases), [[Karnataka]] (46 cases), [[Uttar Pradesh]] (10 cases), [[Madhya Pradesh]] (4 cases) and New Delhi (68 cases). There are no reports of cases being exported to other countries.<ref name="CDC Plague">{{cite journal |title=International Notes Update: Human Plague—India, 1994 |journal=MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. |volume=43 |issue=41|pages=761–762 |date=21 October 1994|pmid=7935308 |url=https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00032992.htm|access-date=26 December 2015|author1=Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) }}</ref>

== Cause ==
A committee under chairmanship of Professor [[Vulimiri Ramalingaswami]] was formed by the Government of India to investigate the plague episode. In 1995, the committee submitted the report "The Plague Epidemic of 1994" to the government of India. The report concluded that the disease was plague,<ref name="Obituary">{{cite journal |title=In Memoriam: Vulimiri Ramalingaswami (1921–2001) |journal=Emerging Infectious Diseases |volume=7 |issue=4 |doi=10.3201/eid0704.010440 |url=http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/content/7/4/pdfs/v7-n4.pdf|access-date=25 November 2011 |date=July–August 2001 |page=766|doi-access=free|last1=Staff |first1=EID Editorial }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Ramalingaswami V |title=Psychosocial effects of the 1994 plague outbreak in Surat, India |journal=Mil Med |volume=166 |issue=12 Suppl |pages=29–30 |date=December 2001 |doi=10.1093/milmed/166.suppl_2.29 |pmid=11778425 |doi-access=free }}</ref> but did not identify the origin.<ref name = "nmdsll">{{cite news
| title = Plague's Origins A Mystery
| work = The New York Times
| date = 14 March 1995
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/14/science/plague-s-origins-a-mystery.html
| access-date = 31 October 2009
| first=Sanjoy
| last=Hazarika}}</ref>

Other sources identify the ultimate cause as the [[1993 Latur earthquake]],<ref name="theprint">{{Cite web|last=Basu|first=Mohana|date=2020-03-14|title=1994 Surat plague has many lessons for India on how to beat coronavirus|url=https://theprint.in/health/1994-surat-plague-has-many-lessons-for-india-on-how-to-beat-coronavirus/379531/|access-date=2021-03-27|website=ThePrint}}</ref> which caused a large number of homes to be abandoned with food grains inside. This destabilised the population of domestic and wild rats (in which the plague is [[endemic]]), allowing transmission of the plague from wild rats to domestic rats to people.<ref>Saxena, Vijay K., and T. Verghese. "Ecology of Flea-Transmitted Zoonotic Infection in Village Mamla, District Beed". Current Science, vol. 71, no. 10, 1996, pp. 800–802. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24098741. Accessed 1 July 2020.</ref> The World Health Organization collected reports of excessive rat deaths in Malma in the [[Beed district]] of [[Maharashtra]] on 5 August 1994, followed by complaints of fleas. After three weeks, WHO received reports of suspected [[bubonic plague]] in Malma, followed by other villages and districts.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=WHO/CDS/CSR/EDC/99.2 Plague ManualEpidemiology, Distribution, Surveillance and Control|url=https://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/plague/whocdscsredc992a.pdf?ua=1|url-status=live|publisher=World Health Organization|page=35|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716010739/https://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/plague/whocdscsredc992a.pdf?ua=1 |archive-date=16 July 2020 }}</ref>

Flooding in Surat, which had open sewers, put the bodies of many dead rats on the street, which residents probably came into contact with.<ref>{{cite news
| title = Surat: A Victim of Its Open Sewers
| newspaper = The New York Times
| date = 25 September 1994
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/25/world/surat-a-victim-of-its-open-sewers.html
| access-date = 2008-04-26 }}</ref> The [[Ganesh Chaturthi]] festival created crowds in the city shortly thereafter, promoting the spread of [[pneumonic plague]], which was declared on 21 September.<ref name=":0" /> By the end of the outbreak, an estimated 78% of confirmed cases were in the slums of Surat.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Armstrong|first=Dorsey|date=2017-09-21|title=The Black Death: Is The Plague Still A Threat?|url=https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/the-black-death-is-the-plague-still-a-threat/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-03-27|website=The Great Courses Daily|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702024713/https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/the-black-death-is-the-plague-still-a-threat/ |archive-date=2 July 2020 }}</ref>

==Spread of the disease==
In the first week of August 1994, health officials reported unusually large numbers of deaths of domestic rats in [[Surat]] city of [[Gujarat]] state. On 21 September 1994, the Deputy Municipal Commissioner of Health (DMCH) for Surat city received a report that a patient had died seemingly due to [[pneumonic plague]]. The DMCH of Surat alerted medical officers in the area where the patient had died. Later that day, a worried caller informed DMCH about 10 deaths in Ved Road residential area and around 50 seriously ill patients admitted to the hospital.

News of the plague spread through Surat city through the night of 21 September 1994. Ill-prepared, medical shops quickly exhausted stocks of [[tetracycline]].<ref name=NYT1994/> This led to panic with people fleeing hospitals fearing infection from other sick patients.<ref name=NYT1994>{{cite news
| title = With Old Skills and New, India Battles the Plague
| work = [[The New York Times]]
| date = 29 September 1994
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/29/world/with-old-skills-and-new-india-battles-the-plague.html
| access-date = 31 October 2009
| first=John F.
| last=Burns}}</ref>

This triggered one of the biggest post-[[partition of India|partition]] [[Human migration|migration]] of people in India with around 300,000 people leaving Surat city in 2 days,<ref name="Byrne2008">{{Cite book |title=Encyclopedia of pestilence, pandemics, and plagues|date=2008|publisher=Greenwood Press|editor=Joseph Patrick Byrne|isbn=978-0-313-34101-4|location=Westport, Conn.|pages=542–543|oclc=226357719}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> for fear of illness or of being quarantined.

== Confusion over disease identification ==

Initial questions about whether it was an epidemic of plague arose because the Indian health authorities were unable to culture ''[[Yersinia pestis]]'', but this could have been due to lack of sophisticated laboratory equipment.<ref name = "nmdsll"/> Yet there are several lines of evidence strongly suggesting that it was a plague epidemic: blood tests for Yersinia were positive, a number of individuals showed antibodies against Yersinia and the clinical symptoms displayed by the affected were all consistent with the disease being plague.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=The Surat Plague and its Aftermath|url=http://entomology.montana.edu/historybug/YersiniaEssays/Godshen.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611221934/http://entomology.montana.edu/historybug/YersiniaEssays/Godshen.htm|archive-date=11 June 2010|access-date=2008-04-26|website=montana.edu|publisher=Godshen Robert Pallipparambil}}</ref>

About 6,000 cases of fever were misidentified as plague, adding to panic and confusion.<ref name=":1" /> Villagers in [[Rajasthan]] reportedly tried to exterminate rats, which might have led to more cases as fleas would have had to abandon rat hosts for humans.<ref name=":1" />

== Economic impact and hygiene improvements==
Tourism was negatively affected, flights to India were cancelled, and some planes from India were fumigated at airports.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dutt |first1=Ashok |title=Surat Plague of 1994 Re-Examined |journal=Review |date=July 2006 |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=755–760 |pmid=17121302 |url=http://www.tm.mahidol.ac.th/seameo/2006_37_4/21-3658.pdf |access-date=31 October 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206192456/http://www.tm.mahidol.ac.th/seameo/2006_37_4/21-3658.pdf |archivedate=6 February 2016 }}</ref> Many flights from India to the nearby Gulf region were suspended. Some countries also put a hold on the imports from India. Paramilitary forces set up checkpoints to deal with people fleeing Surat. Panic buying and government-ordered closures spread to Mumbai and Delhi.<ref name=":1" />

Economic damage in Surat was estimated at [[Indian rupee|₹]]816 crore (₹8.160 billion).<ref name="theprint" /> The city implemented massive infrastructure improvements, tearing down slums, covering sewers, constructing public pay toilets, and implementing fines for littering. It also improved its plans for emergency travel advisories, and fired some corrupt officials and disciplined ineffective city workers, including street sweepers.<ref name="theprint" />

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* Christopher Wills. ''Plagues, their Origin, History, and Future''. London: Flamingo, 1997, ch. 5 (the 1994 plague).
* {{cite journal |vauthors=Dutt AK, Akhtar R, McVeigh M |title=Surat plague of 1994 re-examined |journal=Southeast Asian J. Trop. Med. Public Health |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=755–60 |date=July 2006 |pmid=17121302 }}
* Garrett, Laurie. Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health (Hyperion; 2001) {{ISBN|0-7868-8440-1}}.
* {{cite news |title=Was it really the plague in Surat? |author=Jayaraman, K.S. |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000525/edit.htm#7 |newspaper=Tribune India, Chandigarh |date=25 May 2000 |access-date=25 November 2011}}

{{Epidemics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1994 Plague in India}}
[[Category:1994 disasters in India|Plague]]
[[Category:1994 disease outbreaks]]
[[Category:August 1994 in India]]
[[Category:September 1994 in India]]
[[Category:October 1994 in India]]
[[Category:Disease outbreaks in India]]
[[Category:History of Surat]]
[[Category:Plague (disease)]]
[[Category:Epidemics in India]]

1994 plague in India - Revision history

Victornkd at 16:35, 5 February 2025