The outbreak of the plague in Al-Torsha south of the Libyan city of Tobruk near the Egyptian border caused panic in Al-Salloum. Matrouh Governor Khalil Saad announced a state of emergency in the border port, and the Ministry of Health sent a committee to the region to investigate the situation. Libya had isolated 13 cases, of which two have died, and the Libyan authorities began vaccinating the residents of the region against the disease. The scared residents of Al-Salloum asked the Health Directorate to spray the city against mosquitoes and rats to avoid the transmission of the disease. Health Minister Dr. Hatem el-Gabali told the governor to immediately burn all garbage as a precautionary measure. Dr. Hamid Samaha, Chairman of the General Authority for Veterinary Services, prepared an urgent memo to Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Amin Abaza to begin a national campaign against rats, in coordination with the Ministry of Health. Dr. Sami el-Bosatti, an expert in epidemiology, warned that rats could transmit the plague from Libya to Egypt, adding that the disease is transmitted by rats to humans through fleas. He told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the rats of the mountainous border areas between the two countries can transmit the disease, urging for veterinary and health committees to exterminate the rats. Dr. Abdel Hay el-Sayed, the head of the Preventive Health Directorate in Cairo, said the borders should be closed in case the disease turns into an epidemic in Libya.
