DANCING WITH THE DEAD MAY BE SPREADING THE PLAGUE IN MADAGASCAR
http://www.newsweek.com/dancing-dead...agascar-693513
“If a person dies of pneumonic plague and is then interred in a tomb that is subsequently opened for a famadihana, the bacteria can still be transmitted and contaminate whoever handles the body,” Willy Randriamarotia, the chief of staff in Madagascar’s health ministry, told AFP.

Plague, an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, is endemic to Madagascar.

Cases of the bubonic plague—which is spread through the bite of an infected flea and was known in medieval Europe as the Black Death—are reported every year in the epidemic season, which usually runs from September to April.

Read more: Shame, city living and a deadly bacteria are killing people in Madagascar

But the first case in the 2017 outbreak occurred on August 23, when a 31-year-old who was visiting Madagascar’s central highlands developed malaria-like symptoms and died four days later.

Since then, 1,192 cases of the plague have been identified and 124 people have died from the disease, according to an update issued on Monday by the U.N.’s humanitarian affairs office and the government of Madagascar.

Two-thirds of the cases identified have been of pneumonic plague—the most virulent form of the disease—which can be spread from person to person through airborne droplets, spread by coughing or sneezing. Pneumonic plague can kill patients within 12 to 24 hours, meaning that immediate diagnosis and health treatment is crucial.




....but yeah, beautiful culture though while it lasts