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| BBC |
At least 40 people have died out of 119 confirmed cases of an outbreak of the plague in Madagascar, raising fears the disease is spreading rapidly in the nation's capital, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed.
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| A bubonic plaque smear, prepared from a lymph removed from an adenopathic lymph node, or bubo, of a plaque patient -Independent |
The bacterial disease is mainly spread between rodents by fleas. Humans bitten by an infected flea usually develop a bubonic form of plague, which swells the lymph node and can be treated with antibiotics, the WHO said.
If the bacteria reach the lungs, the patient develops pneumonia (pneumonic plague), which is transmissible from person to person through infected droplets spread by coughing. This form is "one of the most deadly infectious diseases" and can kill people within 24 hours. But so far only two per cent of the cases reported in Madagascar so far have been pneumonic, it added.
The first case in the outbreak was recorded on 31 August, in a man from Soamahatamana village in the district of Tsiroanomandidy. He died three days later on 3 September. Authorities notified the WHO of the outbreak on 4 November, the agency said.
The last previously known outbreak of the plague was in Peru in August 2010, according to the WHO. - Independent
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