Authorities tried to calm widening panic over India's deadly plague outbreak on Sunday, and two Persian Gulf states began evacuating their citizens.
Neighboring Bangladesh and Pakistan, meanwhile, reported the first suspected cases of pneumonic plague outside India.Fear of contamination has reached panic levels in New Delhi, the capital of 11 million people. Press Trust of India said the number of suspected plague cases reported rose from 2,848 on Saturday to 4,059 on Sunday. Only about 22 cases have so far been confirmed. The majority have turned out to be other diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia, or even common colds.
The plague has killed at least 58 people in recent weeks, including 54 in Surat, the western city where the outbreak began, and four in New Delhi.
Many people in New Delhi have told their maids to take leave and ordered children to stay indoors, fearing exposure to the disease. Many people in the city are wearing cloth face masks in an effort to avoid contamination.
The government asked folk artists to use a major Indian religious holiday to help quell panic. Traveling stage actors in northern India will use Ramlila - a 10-day celebration that starts Oct. 10 - to spread information about how the plague can be cured and how to prevent transmission.
In the first organized evacuation since the outbreak began, the Persian Gulf state of Qatar evacuated 125 of its citizens from Bombay, United News of India reported. Gulf Air, the Manama-based airline, will operate special flights to evacuate Bahrain citizens on Monday, United News said.
In Pakistan, an 8-year-old boy was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms and was being tested for the plague, said Dr. Mushtaq Ahmed, a Health Ministry official in Islamabad.
The boy arrived in Pakistan on a special train from New Delhi for Pakistanis stranded after their government suspended regular travel links with India because of the outbreak.