Bubonic plague death rate in Bombay (Mumbai) 1896-1897

The plague outbreak in Bombay around the turn of the twentieth century was the most fatal plague epidemic documented in any city in the past 130 years. Between September 1896 and May 1897, the Municipal Hospital of Bombay reported a fatality rate in plague cases of 61.5 percent. The fatality rate among plague cases ranged between 38 and 82 percent in different months, was highest in the winter. The reason for the peak in February in Bombay is because the temperatures and climate in these months provide the optimal conditions for the breeding of rats and fleas; in contrast to this, earlier epidemics in Europe typically peaked in Autumn, whereas the epidemics in Hong Kong between 1894 and 1902 were hardest felt in May or June.