As almost every year, the plague returns to Madagascar. Five people have died of the pulmonary form of the disease, the health ministry told AFP on September 14. The ministry affirms that the situation is under control but the population gives in to panic.
“We have detected 22 suspected cases of plague, including five confirmed deaths” due to the plague since August 28, the director of cabinet of the Ministry of Health, Professor Willy Randriamarotia, told AFP. Before adding that since Monday September 11, “no death from the plague has been reported”.
The plague season from October to March
The Big Island has entered the plague season which runs from October to March almost every year since 1980. According to the Ministry of Health, this period coincides with the rainy season, the resurgence of bush fires and the tradition of “turning over the dead”, a custom of exhuming the remains of relatives and wrapping them in new shrouds.
The person who carried the disease caught it in Ankazobe, in the center of the island. She took a taxi-brousse to get to Tamatave, in the east, but died on the way, in the town of Moramanga. It contaminated two people who died in Tamatave. Two other people, in contact with the sick, died in the province of Antananarivo.
Pneumonic plague fatal in 24 to 72 hours
In Tamatave, where there had been no cases of plague for 100 years, long queues are forming in front of pharmacies, as reported by the Malagasy media. According to the Ministry of Health, 250 to 300 people have been treated by the state to prevent the spread of the disease.
Plague bacteria thrive in rats and are carried by fleas. The bubonic form in humans is treated with antibiotic treatment when taken in time, however the pulmonary form, which is transmitted by coughing, can be fatal in 24 to 72 hours.
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