Madagascar

In countries like the US Bubonic Plague is still present because it has a reservoir in a number of animal species but only occasionally do people get affected and we no longer see epidemics in human populations.

Other countries do still suffer from epidemics of bubonic plague though. Most recently Madagascar has suffered through four annual epidemics infecting thousands of people.

A number of articles have reviewed these outbreaks and there are some interesting facts:

• Madagascar has accounted for 45% of all the cases of plague in Africa in the last 15 years.
• The case-fatality rate is just under 8%.
• All the Y. pestis isolates remain sensitive to streptomycin.
• Plague outbreaks occur during the dry and cool season.