Plague Epidemic Spreading at “Alarming Rate” in Madagascar
Posted by feww on October 23, 2017
70+ Percent of the reported cases are highly virulent pneumonic plague: Health officials
The deadly disease outbreak has hit Madagascar’s two biggest cities, Antananarivo and Toamasina, and it’s spreading at an “alarming rate,” health officials said
“Normally, people who catch the plague live in poor areas, but people in every place in society are catching the disease,” Madagascar’s director of health promotion said.
More than 1,150 cases have been confirmed since August, with a fatality rate of about 10%.
About 70 per cent of the reported cases are pneumonic plague, a more virulent form of the disease that spreads through the inhalation of respiratory droplets/small particles produced by an infected person.
“Plague can be a very severe disease in people, with a case-fatality ratio of 30% to 60% for the bubonic type, and is always fatal for the pneumonic kind when left untreated,” said WHO.
Outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD)
An outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD) that has appeared in eastern Uganda on the border with Kenya, according to WHO.
“At least one person is confirmed to have died of MVD and several hundred people may have been exposed to the virus at health facilities and at traditional burial ceremonies in Kween District, a mountainous area 300 kilometres northeast of Kampala.”
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