Madagascar can have an incurable disease in the USA

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According to the latest data, 2017 people have already died from the epidemic of the Madagascar plague in 165.

6-9 in November was marked by a jump in mortality of 15%, after that doctors announced a heightened danger regime in ten countries in Africa, reports Daily Mail.

According to WHO statistics, at least 2034 people became infected with a more deadly form of "medieval disease", which until now has been distributed only in Madagascar.

Some experts fear that the disease may mutate and become incurable during the outbreak of the epidemic, which is predicted to continue in Madagascar until April of the 2018 year.

Other experts fear that the plague will go beyond continental Africa and reach the United States and Europe, as the Ebola virus previously did. Such a development could threaten millions of people, given how quickly this bacterial disease is spreading.

According to doctors, the strain that brought the epidemic to Madagascar this year is more deadly than those that affected the island before.

Two thirds of the infections were caused by airborne transmission, spreading plague bacteria through coughing, sneezing, spitting, etc. Many patients died within 24 hours after infection.

Paul Hunter, a professor of health at the University of East Anglia, was the first expert to predict that the plague could spread to other countries, despite Madagascar being separated from mainland Africa by water; he also did not rule out the spread of the plague throughout the world.

“If we don't work to control the disease in Madagascar and Africa, at some point it will escape our control and cause enormous devastation around the world. There is always a risk of travel when the disease spreads around the world,” the professor said.

Hunter’s fears are shared by dozens of other leading scientists, many of whom predicted that this “truly unprecedented” outbreak of the epidemic will continue and expand.

Professor Jimmy Whitworth of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine called the plague epidemic in Madagascar in 2017 the worst epidemic in 50 in years.

Professor Jonjo Macfadden, a molecular geneticist from the University of Surrey, said that plague is a “disease of the poor” because it is carried by rats, bacteria can also live in wastewater and spread in dwellings where there are problems with sewers.

“It's a disease of poverty where people are forced to live next to rats, and that usually means exposure to sewage and poor living conditions. If we got rid of rats that live close enough to people, then we wouldn't have this disease," McFadden said.

He also stressed the inaccessibility of medicine in Madagascar, where people sometimes have to walk almost a day to the nearest hospital.

Amid fears that the plague had reached a critical point, the World Bank decided to allocate an additional $ 5 million to control the number of cases of plague infection.

The money will allow the deployment of additional personnel to fight the epidemic in the affected areas, to disinfect buildings, and to provide fuel for ambulances.

Charlotte Ndiaye from WHO called the situation on the island "terrible." Many traditional families do not want to part with their loved ones, putting themselves at risk of infection from them. Hundreds of families are unhappy about what they should do with the bodies of the dead. If officials suspect that someone died from the plague, the body is treated with special chemicals to destroy the bacteria. The body is then placed in a sealed bag and buried in a common grave, but this practice goes against the traditions of the local culture.

In this culture, an annual celebration is held in honor of the deceased (November 1), when crowds of people gather at cemeteries. Prior to that, they conduct an ancient ritual, during which they dig up the corpses of their loved ones. Officials fear that this may lead to the risk of plague from dead people.

Therefore, officials are trying to bury the victims of the plague in tombs that cannot be opened after burial.

Experts have long noted that the plague season in Madagascar coincides with the period when ceremonies are held to dig up the corpses of loved ones - from July to October; In addition, the spread of the disease is facilitated by hurricanes, which carry bacteria throughout the island and beyond.

Plague affects Madagascar every year, but the death rate this year has exceeded forecasts by three times.

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