http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/874 ... ast-Africa
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/healt ... 31591.html
I know someone is immediately going to downplay this as there is a cure available, but the first link discusses how it is actually 3 strains:
But the plague, which has so far killed 123 and left hundreds infected, is a super-strain which is even more infectious and deadly than famous the Bubonic Plague of the 14th century.
The Madagascar Plague is actually THREE plagues.
The first is bubonic - the type which ravaged Europe and the Mediterranean in the thirteen hundreds, leaving up to 60 percent dead.
The second is pneumonic – a super strain of the yersinia pestis bacterium which ALWAYS results in death.
The third, more rare strain, is septecaemic – a life-threatening infection of the blood.
In Madagascar plague is endemic, and flare-ups cause public health emergencies on an almost annual basis but now the nation faces an uncontrolled epidemic which is terrifying the world’s health agencies.
In the second article, WHO talks a bit more about the issues:
Plague is endemic to parts of Madagascar with around 500 cases reported annually. But the current outbreak has reached densely populated cities and regions where it is not usually present, and are less prepared to handle cases.
Pneumonic plague is a particularly infectious form because it invades the lungs and so can spread quickly from person to person, through coughing or in confined spaces.
Bubonic plague, the other common form, is spread by bites from infected fleas, or close contact with an infected animal.
The WHO says: “Plague is a preventable and treatable disease; however, untreated pneumonic plague is always fatal.
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