National Debt Relief is rated Excellent!

In a follow-up to the plague situation in Madagascar, the Ministry of Health reported today (computer translated) that the new case count is now up to 878 nationwide, including 80 deaths.

Yersinia pestis
Produced by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), this digitally-colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicts a number of purple-colored Yersinia pestis bacteria that had gathered on the proventricular spines of a Xenopsylla cheopis flea./CDC

Plague is endemic on the Plateaux of Madagascar, including Ankazobe District where the current outbreak originated. There is a seasonal upsurge, predominantly of the bubonic form, which occurs every year, usually between September and April. The plague season began earlier this year and the current outbreak is predominantly pneumonic and is affecting non-endemic areas including major urban centres such as Antananarivo (the capital city) and Toamasina (the port city).

In Seychelles, samples from patients suspected to be ill with pneumonic plague tested negative at a WHO partner laboratory in Paris, France on Tuesday, 17 October 2017.

The ten samples were shipped by the Seychelles Ministry of Health and WHO to the collaborating centre for Yersinia at the Institut Pasteur to confirm the status of several suspected and one probable case – a 34-year-old Seychelles national who had returned from Madagascar with plague-like symptoms.

WHO is working with the Seychelles health authorities to reduce the risk of plague spreading from neighbouring Madagascar, which faces an unprecedented outbreak that has killed more than 70 people since August. No plague cases have been confirmed in the Seychelles.

Related: