NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

Seven people, including a child, died from this pneumonic plague between August 25 and 30, according to a Russian media report citing the local Ministry of Health.

Image/ Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
http://lib.utexas.edu/maps/madagascar.html

Three patients died in a medical facility, the rest of the disease was diagnosed during a postmortem examination. Currently, 22 patients are being treated.

Cases of pneumonic plague are concentrated near the capital, in the center of the island.

According to the source, the last time pneumonic plague was recorded in 2017. The disease is fatal, but curable if treated in time.

Symptoms are similar to those of COVID-19, including coughing and shortness of breath. At the second stage, there are sharp changes in the respiratory organs of infection, which is accompanied by periods of febrile excitement, the height of the disease and the terminal period with progressive shortness of breath and coma.

A period that poses a great threat to others, since there is an active release of the pathogen into the external environment of microbes.

On the first day of the disease, chills, headaches, discomfort in the lower back, limbs, weakness, nausea and vomiting, redness and puffiness of the face, fever up to 38-41 degrees, a feeling of compression in the chest, difficulty breathing, anxiety and rapid pulse. In the agonal period, shallow breathing and pronounced weakness are noted. A weak cough is recorded, the sputum contains streaks of blood and a significant amount of plague microbes.

Plague is an endemic disease in Madagascar that appears every year. According to the Pasteur Institute, the country accounts for 75% of all cases of diseases worldwide.