Public health alert - plague!

Seychelles is a country located in East Africa, an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa. It's home to numerous beaches, coral reefs and nature reserves, as well as rare animals such as giant Aldabra tortoises. 

Beautiful paradise dealing with plague- public health alert!

Seychelles Reports a Case of Plague- by Donald McNeil, Jr.

Reported in The New York Times

Disease- the world is always a smaller planet when infectious diseases recycle themselves. Plague is one of those terrible infectious diseases. It is never completely eradicated and appears again when public health diligence might not be ready to respond. 

(Albert Camus wrote "Plague" a metaphor about the rise of Naziism, but the plot described the cycle of the disease in East Africa, a community similar to Seychelles. In 1957, he received the Nobel Prize for literature.) 

In fact, when funds for preventing infectious diseases and protecting public health are cut, the rise in morbidity and related mortality from unpredictable outbreaks are absolute. Ways to prevent the spread of plague are to monitor the source- remove dead animals and test for the bacteria in areas where people live in close quarters. These preventive costs are affordable, especially when compared to the costs of the consequences of an outbreak. In his novel, Camus describes how the population at risk was being manipulated into not knowing how deadly the outbreak was, until one persistent physician stood up to authorities.

Madagascar

Schools have been closed, and large public gatherings like sporting events and music festivals have been banned.

Madagascar is struggling to contain a plague outbreak that began in August. The outbreak has killed at least 50 people so far, and 500 confirmed cases have been reported, according to the World Health Organization and Madagascar’s health ministry.

Schools have been closed, and large public gatherings like sporting events and music festivals have been banned.

The W.H.O., Doctors of the World, Doctors Without Borders and other medical aid groups are sending experts to help Madagascar fight the outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 2 alert on Wednesday, suggesting “enhanced precautions” for Americans headed for Madagascar.

Although the risk to travelers “appears to be very low,” the C.D.C. said, visitors should wear insect repellent to prevent flea bites and should avoid people with coughs or pneumonia and sick or dead animals.
The case in the Seychelles is the first instance of the current outbreak spreading to another country. 

Officials are worried it may gain momentum, like the 2014 Ebola outbreak, which killed more than 11,000 people.

Plague is endemic in Madagascar, and the country typically has about 400 cases a year. But the disease is normally confined to the rural central highlands. Most cases there are spread by fleas that bite rats, which increase in number after the rice harvest.

This outbreak alarms health officials because it has reached several Malagasy cities, including the capital, Antananarivo, and because most cases are of the pneumonic form, which is spread by coughing. The infection attacks the lungs and can kill within days.

Pneumonic plague does not pass between people as easily as measles or the flu. Like tuberculosis, the cause is bacterial, and it can be transmitted between people in prolonged close contact, such as members of a single household, or those in prisons, schools or hospitals.

MaineWriter- investment in public health saves lives and protects money that can be used to find cures for infectious diseases.