A 15-year-old herder has died in Kyrgyzstan of the bubonic plague. The death is the first case of the bubonic plague in the country in 30 years.

The teenager contracted the bubonic plague by being bitten by an infected flee that most likely came from a marmot, a type of mountain squirrel sometimes hunted for food.

Bubonic plague, known as the Black Death when it killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe during the Middle Ages, is now rare.

Dr Bertherat said that bubonic plague in Central Asia was usually transmitted by fleas attached to small wild mammals, which meant that only those who lived in rural areas and worked outside for long hours were in danger of being affected.

"Because bubonic plague is such a rare event, local medical staff are not prepared to diagnose the disease and treat it appropriately," he said, "which means the first patient usually dies without even a diagnostic."

"If secondary cases occur, medical staff are aware and better able to treat patients with antibiotics."

"We suspect that the patient was infected with the plague through the bite of a flea," health ministry official Tolo Isakov said.

The BBC's Rayhan Demytrie says that doctors failed to correctly diagnose his illness until tests were made after his death last week.

During the last 20 years, at least three countries experienced outbreaks of human plague after dormant periods of about 30-50 years, experts say.

These areas were India in 1994 and 2002, Indonesia in 1997 and Algeria in 2003.

The teen was named Temir Issakunov. He came from a mountain village in the north-east of the country, close to the border with Kazakhstan.

More than 2,000 people are being tested for bubonic plague in the Issik-Kul region.