By RFIPubliée le 19-09-2019Modified on 19-09-2019 à 03:16

A hundred scientists from around the world gathered for three days in the Malagasy capital to share their research and their thoughts around Yersinia, the bacillus responsible for the plague.

For about thirty years, the plague has reappeared in countries in which it was thought to have been eradicated. How to explain this phenomenon ? And what are the consequences? Algeria, Russia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Zambia ... For several decades, the plague disappeared from the radar systems of these countries. And then one day, cases have re-emerged, causing epidemics.

" One of the main reasons is that it is believed that it has disappeared because we do not have a human case , explains Professor Elisabeth Carniel, a world specialist in the disease and current general director of the Pasteur Center in Paris. Cameroon. Now the reservoir of the plague is the rodents. She can live long among rodents without contact with humans for a while. "

Silent fireplaces

The most convincing example for researchers is that of Algeria, where no case of plague has been detected for 50 years. But in 2003, an epidemic is raging in Oran. Molecular analysis of pathogenic strains then shows that they are identical to those of the 1950s. Therefore, Elisabeth Carniel prefers to speak of silent homes, rather than extinct hearths, the consequences of which are sometimes dramatic when they are reactivated.

" Fortunately, nowadays, we have antibiotics, we are no longer like in the Middle Ages when a large part of people died without treatment. Nowadays, we can treat them quickly enough. So the health consequences are much more limited and fortunately. Nevertheless, there may be economic impacts as we saw in India, in 1994, after 30 years without a plague case, where it was dramatic. It was the pulmonary form , which is fatal in almost 100% of cases when it is left untreated and which led to thousands of suspected cases, then to a closure of all borders with external countries thus an economic loss huge with people who fled from all sides, including doctors. "

More surveillance

The researchers therefore recommend more controls to limit the expansion of existing outbreaks, as in Madagascar , but also more surveillance in areas where the bacillus is reappearing.

As for Europe, where the plague decimated nearly a third of the population in the Middle Ages, if researchers agree that there are no more aboriginal homes, reimportation is still possible seen the constant flow of people with the current means of transport. However, health and medical conditions have changed, which nevertheless limits the risk of an epidemic.

    On the same subject

    Madagascar: STAR responds to criticism of its practices

    Madagascar: agriculture, a sector that is struggling to structure itself

    Madagascar: few candidates for municipal and communal elections

    Madagascar: financial information explains how it works

    comments