Plague kills 19 in Madagascar in two months

Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-29 03:34:07|Editor: yan
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ANTANANARIVO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Plague killed 19 in Madagascar in the past two months, a government official said on Thursday.

"Altogether 104 people in Madagascar are suspected to be infested by plague, including bubonic and pulmonary. After analysis, 19 of them have died," Madagascar's minister of public health Lalatiana Andriamananarivo said during a press conference.

"These cases were received from 18 out of 119 districts in Madagascar from Aug. 1, 2017 to Sept. 27, 2017," the minister said.

The minister added that medicines are enough to care the patients of plague and the budget of his department is enough to face the epidemics with the support of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).

Urging Malagasy people to rush to nearby hospital in case of strange disease, Hery Randriamanjato, the director of Partnership under the ministry of Health, said the care of plague is free in Madagascar.

Marcellin Randrema, the director of fight against plague under the ministry of Health, said that victims' families do not dare to declare the case of plague to hospital for fear of burying their family members outside their ancestral tomb, which quickened the spreading of the plague in the country.

He explained that a person killed by plague cannot be removed from his tomb earlier than seven years, but Malagasy people practice the famadihana, a funerary tradition known as the turning of the bones of the corpses, for every three years, five years or seven years.

Arthur Lamina, who is in charge of plague under the WHO, said his organization is doing its best to help Madagascar's government take all necessary measures to stop or alleviate the spreading of the plague.

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