News Briefs:
UZBEKISTAN: TASHKENT BANS TURKMEN ANIMAL PRODUCTS
9/22/09

Uzbekistan has banned meat and diary imports from Turkmenistan to guard against the spread of a "dangerous epidemiological situation" in the Turkmen province of Dashoguz.

According to a report distributed by the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti, an unidentified Uzbek official in Khorezm Province identified the threat as "hemorrhagic fever."

"People get infected and die because of untimely and insufficient preventive measures," the official said on September 22 without elaborating. The most common form of hemorrhagic fever in Central Asia is the tick-borne Congo-Crimean variety. Numerous outbreaks of the often deadly infection have been reported across the region this summer.