Coverage of the Ebola virus has waned somewhat in the United States even as the disease continues to ravage West Africa, but another illness is quickly spreading in Madagascar - bubonic plague.
Officials in this island nation in the Indian Ocean say that at least 138 cases have been diagnosed this year, with nearly 50 deaths reported. In the capital of Antananarivo, two people have been infected and one has died.
The resurgence of the disease is occurring 10 years after the last case of bubonic plague was found in the capital, and authorities believe it’s possible the disease survived among rats during that time.
The plague has completely vanished from the developed world, with more than 90 percent of cases found in Africa.
In some ways, bubonic plague can be worse than Ebola. The pneumonic version - which affects the lungs - can spread from person-to-person through coughing, and the disease is rapidly spreading through fleas and rats in the country’s slums.
The World Health Organization is working with local officials to combat the outbreak.
“The national task force has been activated to manage the outbreak. With support from partners – including WHO, the Pasteur Institute of Madagascar, the ‘Commune urbaine d’Antananarivo’ and the Red Cross – the government of Madagascar has put in place effective strategies to control the outbreak,” the WHO said.
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