Mozambique draws up contingency plan for bubonic plague

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Mozambique draws up contingency plan for bubonic plague

9:40 CAT | 31 Oct 2017

Mozambique’s Health ministry says it is drawing up a plan to respond to any possible outbreak of bubonic plague.A deadly outbreak of the plague has killed 20 people in the space of a month in neigbouring Madagascar, with a further 84 infected.

The Assistant National Director of Public Health, Maria Benigna Matsinhe, told Radio Mozambique on Sunday that work
is underway to control the entry points to the country by checking people who have been to Madagascar.

“Even before indications that our country is at risk, as soon as we knew of the Madagascar outbreak, the ministry organized, and sent guidelines to the provinces to strengthen vigilance at the borders”, the official said.

According to Matsinhe, Mozambican health workers are observing people who enter the country, and noting where they have been, she added.

The symptoms of plague are fever and a feeling of malaise, which in some cases can evolve to pneumonia.

The plague bacteria develops in rats and other rodents, and is transmitted to humans via fleas.

In humans the classic form of the disease is bubonic, affecting the lymphatic system.
Plague becomes much more serious if it develops into its pneumonic form which can be transmitted from person to person through coughing and saliva.

Mozambican health teams have been deployed at entry points for surveillance to identify possible cases.

So far, no case of the disease has been confirmed in Mozambique.

The U.N. World Health Organization, (WHO) said it fears that the outbreak could worsen because the season for plague, which is endemic in Madagascar, had only just begun, and runs until April.

On average, 400 cases are reported each year.

Mozambique already has experience of dealing with plague, since there have been repeated outbreaks in Mutarara district, in the western province of Tete, on the border with Malawi.

The latest such outbreaks were in 1994 and 1997 during which three deaths were reported.

Source: African News Agency