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Undated handout image provided by Rocky Mountain Laboratories showing an electron micrograph depicting a mass of Yersinia pestis bacteria (the cause of bubonic plague). (AP Photo/Rocky Mountain Laboratories)
(WTNH)– The disease that killed millions in the Middle Ages is now killing many in Africa. An outbreak of the bubonic plague in Madagascar has killed almost 50 people and has infected hundreds more.
The bacterial disease is carried by rodents and can be given to humans from flea bites. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the plague killed 40 people last week but that number reportedly is up to 47. There has been 138 cases suspected and the WHO expects the numbers to rise as the disease is spreading rapidly in the capitol of Antananarivo.
The first case was identified on August 31st after a male in the Soamahatamana village was diagnosed and died four days later.
The bubonic plague causes swelling in the lymph nodes, large swellings on the groin, armpits or neck and gangrene, but can be treated with antibiotics. However if not treated it can develop into the deadly pneumonic plague where the bacteria reaches the lungs and is spread person to person through coughing. Patients can die 24 hours after the infection.
The Who said on their website that “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.”
Just like Ebola, there is little risk in the U.S. and the rest of the developed world. 90% of the cases of the plague are found in Africa.
The bubonic plague killed millions in Europe during the Middle Ages and was known as the Black Death.
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