BISHKEK : A teenage boy has died of bubonic plague in Kyrgyzstan, the country's health officials confirmed Monday, adding that an epidemic was not likely. The 15-year-old was a herder from a small mountain village of Ichke-Zhergez in eastern Kyrgyzstan, close to the border with Kazakhstan and the Issyk-Kul lake. He died last Thursday in the Karakol regional hospital, the ministry said in a statement. "After a meeting of doctors, he was diagnosed with bubonic plague," the statement said. His body was cremated and remains were buried with special precautions.
"We suspect that the patient was infected with the plague through the bite of a flea," Tolo Isakov, a ministry official who heads the sanitation department, said at a briefing in Bishkek Monday.