wellness officials are struggling to contain the spread of a plague eruption that is currently simmering away on theisland of Madagascar . So far it has killed around 124 people and infect some 1,100 others , as the World Health Organization ( WHO ) warns against traveling to regions affected as the disease has developed from the less infective bubonic plague to the more virulent pneumonic variety .
Butthere are also warningsthat the spread of the disease may be being fuelled by a particularly grisly rite carried out by some community of interests in rural Madagascar . eff as ‘ famadihana ’ in Malagasy , the ceremony involves exhuming the idle from their graves and wrapping them in refreshed textile , before dancing the army corps around the tombs and exchange them . According to AFP , the late outbreak of pestilence has coincide with the peak occurrence of the ritual .
“ If a mortal dies of pneumonic pest and is then lay to rest in a tomb that is subsequently open up for a famadihana , the bacterium can still be channelize and contaminate whoever handles the soundbox , ” the health ministry chief of staff , Willy Randriamarotia , reportedly said .
It is important to note , however , that an outbreak of the pestilence in Madagascar is not really that strange , as the bacterium that make it , Yersinia pestis , ispresent in the natural environment , and that this ceremony is nothing newfangled . What is of more business organization is that it has become pulmonary , mean that the bacteria is now infect the lungs of patients , and so is easily pass around by droplet of mucous secretion and weewee loose through cough .
With the development of the irruption to pneumonic pest , there are increasing fear that the disease will spread as people travel from Madagascar to other East African commonwealth . So far , South Africa , Mozambique , Tanzania , Kenya , Ethiopia , Comoros , the Seychelles , Mauritius , and Reunion have up their screening at airdrome to look out for hoi polloi who may have symptom .
“ This outbreak carries a moderate risk of spread to neighbouring Indian Ocean island , ” saidthe WHO , and already there has been at least one suspected sheath of the disease being spread to the Seychelles , as the Seychellois Ministry of Health notified the WHO on October 10 of a man who had recently returned from Madagascar presenting symptom of the pulmonic plague .
While untreated , the pneumonic plague can wipe out within a very short period of clip , sometimes within just 18 hours , so the WHO recommend rapid diagnosis and intervention . Those who do contract the disease can be given common antibiotic , which are known to be effective if given in clip .
