Once feared as the Black Death the rodent-born disease that wiped out a third of the world’s population in the Middle Ages bubonic plague has killed 20 villagers in Madagascar in one of the worst outbreaks globally in recent years, health experts have confirmed.
The confirmation that bubonic plague was responsible for the deaths last week near the north-western town of Mandritsara follows a warning in October from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that the island nation was at risk of a plague epidemic.
The Pasteur Institute of Madagascar revealed on Tuesday that tests taken from bodies in the village last week showed that they had died of the bubonic plague. The institute added it was concerned the disease could spread to towns and cities where living standards have declined since a coup in 2009.
Once feared as the Black Death the rodent-born disease that wiped out a third of the world’s population in the Middle Ages bubonic plague has killed 20 villagers in Madagascar in one of the worst outbreaks globally in recent years, health experts have confirmed.
The confirmation that bubonic plague was responsible for the deaths last week near the north-western town of Mandritsara follows a warning in October from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that the island nation was at risk of a plague epidemic.
The Pasteur Institute of Madagascar revealed on Tuesday that tests taken from bodies in the village last week showed that they had died of the bubonic plague. The institute added it was concerned the disease could spread to towns and cities where living standards have declined since a coup in 2009.
acteria that cause bubonic plague. The disease is spread by Xenopsylla cheopis fleas, whose main host is the black rat. Photograph: Rocky Mountain Laboratories/AP
Once feared as the Black Death the rodent-borne disease that wiped out a third of the world’s population in the Middle Ages bubonic plague has killed 20 villagers in Madagascar in one of the worst outbreaks globally in recent years, health experts have confirmed.
The confirmation that bubonic plague was responsible for the deaths last week near the north-western town of Mandritsara follows a warning in October from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that the island nation was at risk of a plague epidemic.
The Pasteur Institute of Madagascar revealed on Tuesday that tests taken from bodies in the village last week showed that they had died of bubonic plague. The institute added it was concerned the disease could spread to towns and cities where living standards have declined since a coup in 2009.
The deaths are doubly concerning because the outbreak occurred both outside the island’s normal plague season, which runs from July to October, and apparently at a far lower elevation than usual suggesting it might be spreading.
Bubonic plague, which has disappeared from Europe and large parts of the globe, is spread by bites from plague-carrying rat fleas Xenopsylla cheopis whose main host is the black rat. In Europe the threat of the Black Death pandemic, which appeared with black rats brought by merchant ships from Asia, eventually died out as black rats were displaced by brown rats and health and hygiene improved.
Victims often develop painful swelling in the lymph nodes called buboes, flu-like symptoms and gangrene. Although the disease is treatable with antibiotics, without treatment the mortality rate is almost two-thirds of those infected, according to the US Centres for Disease Control.
Last year about 60 people died of plague in Madagascar — the highest number globally. The disease is prevalent in the island’s central highlands, where between 200 and 400 confirmed cases are reported each year to the World Health Organisation between a third and a fifth of globally reported cases.
The disease first appeared in Madagascar in 1898 and was responsible for successive outbreaks until the 1920s, largely confined to the island’s ports. While it disappeared from coastal areas it spread to inland areas above an altitude of 800 metres. However, there was no serious outbreak for 60 years until 1991, when it appeared again around the coastal town of Mahajanga.
After a series of outbreaks that lasted until 1998, health experts warned almost 10 years ago that plague appeared to be spreading again to lower altitudes with men and children most susceptible.
The risk of the disease has increased, say experts, amid increasing poverty and insanitary conditions on the island, not least in its overcrowded prisons. Prisoners are usually most affected by outbreaks.
Following the warning from the ICRC in October, the organisation and Madagascan prison authorities launched a campaign against rodents in Antanimora prison in the capital, Antananarivo, where 3,000 people are behind bars, to reduce the risk of the disease spreading.
Christoph Vogt, head of the ICRC delegation in Madagascar, told the Guardian then: “The chronic overcrowding and the unhygienic conditions in prisons can bring on new cases of the disease. That’s dangerous not only for the inmates but also for the population in general.
“Rat control is essential for preventing the plague, because rodents spread the bacillus to fleas that can then infect humans. So the relatives of a detainee can pick up the disease on a visit to the prison, and a released detainee returning to his community without having been treated can also spread the disease.”
//////////////////////////////////////
Russia Warns America We Will Respond With Nukes
Addressing the threat posed by plans by the United States to install a missile defense system in Europe, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin today asserted that Russia would respond with nuclear weapons if it was targeted by conventional American missiles.
Image: Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin (Wikimedia Commons).
Rogozin’s comments arrive just a day after President Vladimir Putin called on Russia to upgrade its weapons systems in order to repel U.S. plans to institute the EPAA missile shield in Europe, which is ostensibly designed to counter Iran’s nuclear build-up yet is also firmly pointed at Russia.
Asserting that Russia was preparing a response to the U.S. missile defense system, Rogozin warned, They may experiment with conventional weapons on strategic delivery platforms, but they must bear in mind, that if we are attacked, in certain circumstances we will of course respond with nuclear weapons.
The Obama White House has refused to mothball plans for the missile defense shield despite the Bush administration initially signaling it would be scrapped. Although Washington has indicated it will abandon long range missiles, medium-range interceptors will be installed in Redzikowo, Poland by 2018.
Moscow still fears that NATO powers are using Iran as a camouflage for the true target of the missiles Russia’s strategic nuclear forces.
Russia has itself been working on new Yars (SS-29) Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles that have the capability of penetrating U.S. missile defenses and are set to be added to Moscow’s nuclear arsenal next year.
Russia is currently engaged in the largest military build-up since the cold war, including the development of a new missile defense radar in southern and western Russia designed to counter missiles launched from Europe, as part of maneuvers which pose, strategic threat to the United States and NATO allies, according to US military officials.
Earlier this summer, Russia staged its biggest military exercise since the cold war in order to ascertain the readiness of putting intercontinental ballistic missiles on high-alert within a short time frame.
The drill was swiftly followed by NATO’s biggest drill since the cold war, an exercise that was based around NATO’s response to a simulated invasion of Poland by a foreign power.
The two drills coincided with Japanese fighters being forced to intercept Russian bombers that were practicing attacks on U.S. bases in the western Pacific.
A heightening of tensions between the U.S. and Russia would dovetail with the threat of a new arms race in Asia between Japan and China in response to the crisis surrounding the disputed Senkaku Islands.
