A cyclone has killed at least 10 people in southeastern Madagascar, triggering floods, bringing down buildings and cutting power, officials say.

One of the worst-hit towns was Nosy Varika on the east coast where almost 95 per cent of buildings were destroyed “as if we had just been bombed” and floods cut access, an official said.

Cyclone Batsirai swept inland late on Saturday, slamming into the eastern coastline with heavy rain and wind speeds of 165 kilometres per hour.

It was projected it could displace as many as 150,000 people.

Mohamed M. M. Fall@MohamedFall

Thinking of those affected by Cyclone #Batsirai in #Madagascar. Heavy rains continue. Proud of field teams in direct contact with affected people. @UNICEF is providing clean #water, essential medicines & is making sure protection services are in places for #children at shelters.

Source: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/cyclone-batsirai-kills-at-least-10-in-madagascar-destroying-homes-and-cutting-power/b3b17dd0-324c-44cc-98f6-e363e9cb7961

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The World Health Organization (WHO) reports more than 2,000 confirmed or suspected cases and that the death toll has reached 195 as of this week.

The WHO expects that number to rise through April 2018, but does say that the threat of the disease’s spread seems to be decreasing.

While the plague, once known as the Black Death, is not the deadly threat it was centuries or even decades ago, some experts have worry the disease could become resistant to antibiotics.

Despite the slowdown in known infections, the threat level for Madagascar remains high.

In a plague outbreak update published on November 15, the WHO said it would be “scaling up of preparedness and operational readiness activities in neighboring Indian Ocean islands and other southern and east African countries.”

Among them are the Seychelles, Kenya, South Africa, and Tanzania.

“The overall global risk is considered to be low. WHO is re-evaluating the risk assessment based on the evolution of the outbreak and information from response activities,” the organization also notes.

Travelers to Madagascar are advised to avoid contact with dead animals, protect themselves against flea bites, and stay out of the proximity of patients suffering from pneumonic plague.

People who present with symptoms including shortness of breath with coughing and/or blood-tainted sputum, swollen lymph nodes, chills, and fever should seek immediate medical attention.

Source: https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/11/25/plague-deaths-rise-to-nearly-200-as-outbreak-grows-in-madagascar/23286923/

The post Plague deaths rise to nearly 200 as outbreak grows in Madagascar first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The plague currently ravaging Madagascar has proved “resilient” to antibiotics because it is extremely rare, an expert has warned.

It comes as the death toll for the disease rises to 165 and 10 neighbouring countries are put on alert, according to the latest World Health Organization figures.

Dr Matthew Avison, from the University of Bristol, told The Daily Star the outbreak was likely to become more serious before it ends.

He said: “Because this disease is extremely rare, it doesn’t get exposed to antibiotics that often.

“That means it’s more resistant to antibiotics and the risk of death is higher.”

But he also added that it can be treated if drugs are handed out quickly.

His comments come as a medical expert warned that the deadly plague could mutate and become untreatable.

Professor Paul Hunter also warned it was possible for the disease to reach Europe and North America like the Ebola virus did in 2014 following an outbreak in West Africa.

Hunter, who lectures in health protection at the University of East Anglia, said: “As with any disease, it’s a real worry that it mutates and become untreatable.”

He told the Daily Star: “If it reaches the UK, Europe or the US it would be similar to the Ebola outbreak.

“We would probably have a few isolated cases but it shouldn’t spread like it has in Madagascar.”

Two thirds of the cases have been reported as pneumonic which is the most lethal strain.

Dr Charlotte Ndiaye, who works for the World Health Organisation in Madagascar, said: “WHO is concerned that plague could spread further because it is already present in several cities and this is the start of the epidemic season, which usually runs from September to April.”

The disease can be spread by coughing, sneezing, spitting and through contact with other fluids.

It is related to the Black Death which killed around 200 million people in Europe and Asia between 1346 and 1353.

Source: https://blackchristiannews.com/2017/11/madagascar-plague-death-toll-rises-to-195/

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The president is talking about “war” in the face of the outbreak of the highly lethal and easily contagious plague that has plunged the island of Madagascar into a state of fear.

That the plague is spreading in the densely-populated urban areas has caused major concern.

In early October, the first long lines were seen forming at pharmacies in the capital Antananarivo as people tried to obtain antibiotic medicines to protect themselves.

The supplies quickly sold out and the government urged people to stay calm.

But then the Health Ministry sent texts to every telephone number registered in the capital, with this warning: “Plague, the quick death. If you have a cough and some of these symptoms — fever, sore throat, breathlessness, coughing blood — go to the hospital.”

In the meantime, about 50 people have died, with the number doubling within a week. About 450 others are ill — half of them in Antananarivo.

Smaller-scale outbreaks of the disease are not rare on the island off of Africa’s eastern coast. But this time the numbers are much larger.

It is also reported that a vacationer returning to the Seychelles from Madagascar brought the disease with him there. An epidemic of this size has not been seen since one in the Indian region of Surat in 1994.

Schools in Antananarivo, a city of 2.2 million people, and in other places are empty, while classes were also called off at the university.

President Hery Rajaonarimampianina is putting on a show of confidence.

“We are at war, but today we have, I believe, the weapons and munitions to conquer this epidemic,” he said at ceremonies for the handover of aid materials from the World Health Organization, which sent 1.5 million doses of antibiotics, enough to treat 5,000 people who have become infected and to protect 100,000 others.

“The more quickly we act, the more lives we can save,” said the WHO chief for Madagascar, Charlotte Ndiaye.

The bubonic plague is caused by a bacterium called yersinia pestis, which is chiefly spread by fleas and carried by rats. If a human is bitten by an infected flea, the symptoms will appear up to seven days later, first as if a heavy flu and then thickly swelling lymph nodes.

In Madagascar, most of the people infected with plague have contracted the more serious pneumonic form of the disease, which is passed on by breathing in respiratory droplets.

With an early diagnosis, the chance of healing with antibiotics is high. But in the advanced stages, the bubonic plague can develop into pneumonic plague in the lungs. That is transmitted by droplets in the air, similar to the flu, and can quickly spread, with an incubation period of just 24 hours. Untreated, pneumonic plague can lead quickly to death.

There is scarcely any other disease in human history that has spread so much fear and horror as the plague. In Europe, between 1347 and 1353, the “Black Death” claimed millions of lives, possibly as much as one-third of the total population.

The current epidemic in Antananarivo is above all hitting the poor areas hardest. Many of the streets are piled with garbage — ideal conditions for rats.

To try to prevent a panic, authorities have set up tents at the entrances of the poor areas to provide residents with expert information.

Madagascar, with about 25 million people, for years now has been the country that worldwide has had the most reported plague cases, especially the bubonic plague.

If a village reports a case, the health authorities sweep in to drive out the rats, disinfect houses and spray insecticides to kill the fleas. Close relatives of the victims must take antibiotics as a precaution.

The bodies of those killed by the plague are washed in a chlorine solution and rubbed down with lime, for even the dead can spread the infection.

Funeral rituals such as the customary wake of several days in the home of the deceased are forbidden in plague cases. And the remains are buried far from the cemeteries.

“Our teams are well-schooled in fighting the isolated outbreaks of the plague in the countryside,” Health Minister Mamy Lalatiana Andriamanarivo told the French radio network RFI.

“But this time it is different. This is the pneumonic plague — and it’s in the city.”

Source: http://gazette.com/madagascar-battles-plague-in-worlds-worst-outbreak-in-20-years/article/feed/502052

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