Madagascar at risk for bubonic plague epidemic

The BBC reports that Madagascar faces a bubonic plague epidemic unless it slows the spread of the disease, experts have warned. The Red Cross and Pasteur Institute say inmates in the island’s rat-infested jails are particularly at risk. The number of cases rises each October as hot humid weather attracts fleas, which transmit the disease from rats and other animals to humans. Madagascar had 256 plague cases and 60 deaths last year, the world’s highest recorded number. Read article