Plague In Madagascar

[jamesnan]

I have just read that there have been 40 deaths from the Plague since August in Madagascar. This is the first I have heard about this and cannot help thinking that perhaps we now have something else to worry about

[sandyRoe]

Antibiotics treat it. People in the west have nothing to worry about. It's poor inhabitants of Third World countries who might fall victim of this.

[Buenchico]

Relevant links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30152979
and
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/01January/Pages/New-strains-of-the-Black-Death-could-emerge.aspx

[douglas9401]

St. Bob may struggle to rhyme Madagascar.

Bubonic should be easy enough though.

[Peter Pedant]

.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30152979

very unlikely to get here - the main spread is by the Black rat ( rattus rattus ) and we have the Norwegian ( r novegicus ). The rat flea that carries plague cant complete its life cycle on the norwegian rat

but there again we said that about Ebola....

Last seen in East Anglia at the beginning of the last century:
HL Deb 22 November 1910 vol 6 cc826-8 826
§*LORD LAMINGTON rose to ask whether, for the more effective destruction of rats in the plague-infected districts of East Anglia, the Local Government Board, as the chief authority, will not itself take steps for their extermination or else induce the local authorities concerned to adopt concerted measures under expert scientific guidance.

[Peter Pedant]

// Antibiotics treat it. People in the west have nothing to worry about. It's poor inhabitants of Third World countries who might fall victim of this.//

Plague vaccine works quite well ( having had it, the vaccine not the disease )

Last death here was accidental in 1962

[Peter Pedant]

// Last death here was accidental in 1962//
and there were no secondary cases.

I think he just went to bed with 'flu and and sort of woke up dead
[it was after all such a long long time ago...]

[DTCwordfan]

what's the size of the rat population now - they reckon it's equal to the human one in the UK though some of the humans that are pro ISIS/Taliban may just be of the species too?

As to rhyming with Madagascar, Gaga Bag Master? def: a stroppy golf club kit room manager or golf professional.

[Peter Pedant]

Yes DTC - I think there is a rat somewhere within a metre of you as you sit rhyming "Madagascar"....

but see above -

wrong kind of rat

[DTCwordfan]

I thought that we had some black rats establish themselves with ships returning from the Americas from the 17thC onwards.....did some research work into dovecotes, that's why, and the early ones had the cotes set quite low in the walls as the norvegicus couldn't climb the walls that high....

[jamesnan]

Well it is certainly something to make you think, what else !

[wolf63]

I know a few rats - the rodent version are domesticated and cute, the human type need to be eradicated.

[Peter Pedant]

Dee tee - wiki on the rat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rat

is quite good, doesnt explain why one displaced the - altho the short answer has to be: brown rat is better at being a rat....
.
and rubbishes the standard idea that plague changed as a result of the displacement - standard in the sixties anyway

[Peter Pedant]

.

yeah wolfie there is another thread on human angels and the opposite - the human rat is coming up quite a lot

and how one really does outnumber the otheer

[mushroom25]

//wrong kind of rat//

in general yes, but not entirely.
http://www.britishwildlifecentre.co.uk/planyourvisit/animals/blackrat.html

[sandyRoe]

Or you could rhyme: There was a Lascar from Madagascar, as an opening line

[FrogNog]

Alabaster rhymes with Madagascar

[sandyRoe]

♪ There was a Lascar from Madagascar
Who was bitten by a rat
Now he don't know what he's gat ♫
not quite a rhyme in that last line but not bad for a first effort

[RandyMarsh]

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