Plague outbreak in Madagascar revived dread of a killer
ANTANANARIVO: Most inhabitants of Madagascar thought the plague was a footnote of medical history until the disease dramatically returned last year, slaying more than 200 people.
Fear and anxiety rippled across the Indian Ocean island nation.
“People were afraid to come to hospital — they were afraid of catching the plague,” recalled Professor Mamy Randria, head of the infectious diseases service at a hospital in the capital Antananarivo.
Randria found himself on the front line of an urban war against the disease, which shook his own medical personnel when they realised what they were up against.
“They were terrified by the reputation of the plague. It kills very fast and it is very contagious,” he said.
Many families of plague victims complained of discrimination, while medical staff were tainted with suspicion by association with the sickness.
“Doctors treating the plague were forced by their wife or partner to sleep in separate beds,” Randria said.
In the ‘Black Death’ pandemic that swept through Europe in the 14th century, as much as a third of the population were wiped out by the plague.
Today, thanks to diagnostic tests, tried-and-trusted containment procedures, simple rules of hygiene and an arsenal of antibiotics, the disease is no longer a mass killer.
Even so, it remains an endemic threat in a number of African countries that are among the poorest on the planet, including Madagascar.
The bacteria that causes the plague, Yersinia pestis, is transported by rats and transmitted to human beings by their fleas.
In Madagascar, it tends to make a comeback each hot rainy season, from September to April. On average, between 300 and 600 infections are recorded every year among a population approaching 25 million people, according to a UN estimate.
The 2017 season, though, proved to be exceptional. Cases sprang up far earlier than usual and instead of being confined to the countryside, the disease infiltrated towns. The authorities recorded 2,384 cases, leading to 202 deaths.
Most fatalities came from the pneumonic form of plague, which infects the lungs — the rarest but most virulent form of the disease.
The announcement of the first cases in highland Antananarivo and the large eastern seaport of Toamasina caused a major scare.
Residents of the capital swarmed to pharmacies to acquire thermometers, face-masks and antibiotics. — AFP