Not since the Middle Ages has the bubonic plagues taken so many lives in a year. Having wiped out 25 million people in Europe, appearances of the Black Death since have been rare but the Red Cross is reporting a new outbreak has killed more than 20 people on the island of Madagascar. Living standards in the nation have collapsed since 2009 and the prevalence of rats has helped spread the disease easily.
~~~
The Pasteur Institute of Madagascar revealed on Tuesday that tests taken from bodies in the village last week showed that they had died of bubonic plague. The institute added it was concerned the disease could spread to towns and cities where living standards have declined since a coup in 2009.
The deaths are doubly concerning because the outbreak occurred both outside the island’s normal plague season, which runs from July to October, and apparently at a far lower elevation than usual – suggesting it might be spreading.
Following the warning from the ICRC in October, the organization and Madagascan prison authorities launched a campaign against rodents in Antanimora prison in the capital, Antananarivo, where 3,000 people are behind bars, to reduce the risk of the disease spreading.
Christoph Vogt, head of the ICRC delegation in Madagascar, told the Guardian then: “The chronic overcrowding and the unhygienic conditions in prisons can bring on new cases of the disease. That’s dangerous not only for the inmates but also for the population in general.
“Rat control is essential for preventing the plague, because rodents spread the bacillus to fleas that can then infect humans. So the relatives of a detainee can pick up the disease on a visit to the prison, and a released detainee returning to his community without having been treated can also spread the disease.”
Sources: The Guardian, Zerohedge
~~~~~NNNNN~~~~~
Overcrowding, lack of proper sanitation, and rats. Add lowered standards for food preservation, and you have a perfect formula for outbreaks of many different diseases including the Black Death. All of these disease precursors are going to be featured in a social/economic collapse, as will a large transient population to unwittingly spread these diseases.
I strongly urge everyone to familiarize themselves with Universal Precautions (healthcare), Field Sanitation protocols and methods, and Food Service Sanitation standards, and be prepared to employ those precautions in a post SHTF situation as part of your family/tribe’s risk-management plan. Plague, Cholera, Dysentery, and other health risks are at least as dangerous to your family and community as looters and raiders, folks, so please be prepared.
LT
~ Those who abuse Liberty, sentence themselves to death!
