Madagascar: new cases of pulmonary plague in the province of Antananarivo
The University Hospital of Antananarivo, Madagascar.
AFP - RIJASOLO
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
In Madagascar, pulmonary plague has reappeared in the capital province of Antananarivo.
From August 25 to 30, seven people including a girl died of this disease, according to the Ministry of Health.
The last epidemic dates back to 2017.
Advertising
Read more
With our correspondent in Antananarivo,
Laure Verneau
Seven successive deaths in less than a week due to late treatment.
Three people have died in hospital, the other four are community deaths, meaning the disease was detected post-mortem, which is believed to have caused its spread.
This is indicated by a source within the Ministry of Public Health.
The cases of pulmonary plague are concentrated in a town in the Itasy region, in the district of Arivonimamo, not far from the capital, in the center of the island.
Twenty-two positive people are currently being treated in local health centers.
The fatal disease is curable if treated on time and drugs are free.
The symptoms of pulmonary plague resemble those of Covid (cough, breathing difficulties ...) The disease, very contagious, is first contracted by the infected rat flea.
We speak at this stage of bubonic plague.
► To read also: Covid-19: in Madagascar, the Delta variant separates relatives
When, in a secondary spread, it reaches the lungs, it is called pulmonary plague.
It is also transmitted from human to human by air (sputum, sputum, microscopic droplets ...).
This second form is much more lethal than the first.
The contaminated town was quarantined by the authorities.
Health barriers have also been set up around several surrounding villages, this source further specifies within the Ministry of Health.
Plague is an endemic disease in Madagascar, which reappears every year.
The country has 75% of global cases reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), indicates the Pasteur Institute.
The last plague epidemic dates back to 2017, on a scale that the country had not known for twenty years with nearly 2,500 cases detected in Tamatave, on the east coast.
In the capital, between August and November, the disease had killed more than 200 people.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Madagascar
Health and medicine