The plague is an infectious disease triggered by Yersinia pestis, a bacteria transmittable from animals to humans. People can be infected by being bitten by fleas, coming in contact with infected rodents, or by direct contact with infected people. (..) There are three major types of plague: bubonic, septicaemic, and pneumonic. Pneumonic, the most lethal form, has broken out in Madagascar. Highly contagious, it is transmitted from person to person often by coughing. If untreated, it has a fatality rate close to 100 percent and can be fatal within 24 hours of being contracted. Bubonic plague is spread by fleas or rodents to humans and can spread to a person's lungs. About 10 percent of bubonic plague cases develop to become pneumonic. The third strain septicaemic, when the infection spreads through the bloodstream. This could happen from flea bites or if the bacteria enters through a cut on a person's skin, for example. (..) So far, the plague has spread to 20 districts in 10 different regions in Madagascar. (..) Typically, around 600 cases of plague are reported each year. But these are mostly bubonic. This time, however, the vast majority of cases are pneumonic (..) It is believed that the current outbreak began in August, when a 31-year-old man thought to have malaria travelled by taxi from the central highlands, through Antananarivo. He was on his way to the coastal city of Toamasina. He had, in fact, not contracted malaria, but the pneumonic plague. (..) In this case, the plague is symptomatic of poverty. A lack of sanitation, clean water, basic hygiene and health facilities have made the country a breeding ground in certain rural parts of the country. (..) The hot climate and forest fires are to blame, too, which have traditionally forced rats to flee into inhabited areas... "We can get those under control, but certainly controlling the disease in animal populations would require enormous investments in environmental sanitation, and much better water sewage systems. With our increasing population and particularly increasing urban population, this may well be another wake-up call to really invest in proper sanitation and proper infrastructure."
Dans Mongabay
In the years since Madagascar’s 2009 coup d’état, the area around Ranomafana National Park has faced security threats from illegal gold miners, armed cattle rustlers, and bandits that have made it increasingly difficult to operate parts of the park.
Illegal gold mining is both a symptom and a cause of the rise in crime in the area, as people living in poor communities beset by livestock theft are drawn to take part.
Elsewhere in the country illegal logging and mining, corruption, impunity and other breaches threaten to undermine conservation efforts, and limited funds make enforcement difficult.
The problem underscores a broad challenge for conservationists across Madagascar: how to make progress on a set of environmental goals that depend fundamentally on the rule of law?
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