Madagascar faces bubonic plague epidemic thanks to rat-infested prisons after disease kills 60 people in a year

Madagascar had 256 cases of bubonic plague last year with 60 deaths

Charities fear disease will become an epidemic thanks to crowded prisons

Fleas which carry the plague thrive in the humid weather of October



Bubonic plague is sweeping through Madagascar and could lead to a full-blown epidemic, aid charities have warned.



Fears are growing that the deadly disease could spread through the prisons of the island nation, which are frequently infested with rats.



Last year, 60 people in Madagascar died from bubonic plague, more than in any other country in the world.



Disease: Bubonic plague, carried by fleas like this one, is sweeping through Madagascar

While the disease has been almost entirely eradicated from Europe, there were 256 cases of bubonic plague recorded in Madagascar last year.



October is the start of the danger period for the disease as fleas which spread the plague thrive in the humid weather.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Pasteur Institute are now working in the country to prevent bubonic plague from becoming even more common, according to the BBC .

Experts are particularly concerned about the prospect of an epidemic started in Madagascar's crowded and filthy prisons and then spreading when inmates are released or receive visitors.



Rats living in the prisons often carry fleas which transmit bubonic plague to humans by biting them.

The disease can then escape to the outside world via staff, visitors, freed inmates or the rats themselves.

Idyllic: But Madagascar, pictured, is now the plague capital of the world with 256 cases last year

'If the plague gets into prisons there could be a sort of atomic explosion of plague within the town,' Christophe Rogier of the Pasteur Institute told the BBC.



'The prison walls will never prevent the plague from getting out and invading the rest of the town.'



The ICRC is working to eradicate the disease, but this is particularly difficult as it is necessary not only to kill the rats themselves but also to destroy the fleas living on them.



Although the disease can be cured by antibiotics, rural residents often do not have access to even basic healthcare and can be ashamed to seek treatment.



One farmer told the BBC he had not been allowed to bury his daughter after she died of plague, as officials took her body into quarantine and buried it themselves.

