Well, I say two “more”, but in fact we’ve covered one of these on more than one occasion previously. That’s the issue of antibiotic resistance and the fact that we’re all – at some point or other – going to die a horrible infected death.
But we won’t be the first. Not by a long shot. Because The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US revealed (just before the Federal Shutdown) that of the 2 million plus Americans affected by antibiotic resistant bugs each year, around 23,000 will die. This is news because it’s the first time they’ve put a hard number on the number of deaths. And they’ve done it as objectively as possible:
The number of deaths is substantially lower than previous estimates, in part because researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stripped out cases in which a drug-resistant infection was present but not necessarily the cause of death.
Which isn’t great, but does at least set down the ground rules – and therefore a baseline – for future calculations. Those future calculations are unlikely to be pretty:
“We are getting closer and closer to the cliff,” said Dr. Michael Bell, a CDC official who presented the data.
Yes, we know. Sally already told you that.
However, should you currently be in Madagascar (and especially in its prisons), antibiotic resistance is probably not going to worry you.
BUT THE BUBONIC PLAGUE MIGHT.
Yes, really.
Also known as The Black Death, this is exactly the same disease the swept through Europe in the 17th Century, killing about half the population of the continent. I remember a scare back in the lab in Oxford in the late 90s when one of our ID tests gave a result that could have indicated Y.pestis (the bug that cause bubonic plague) and everyone crapped themselves.
Fortunately, it turned out not to be the case and anyway, crapping oneself is not a symptom.
But now experts have warned that Madagascar is on the point of a major epidemic unless it slows the spread of the disease:
The Red Cross and Pasteur Institute say inmates in the island’s dirty, crowded jails are particularly at risk. The number of cases rises each October as hot humid weather attracts fleas, which transmit the disease from rats and other animals to humans. Madagascar had 256 plague cases and 60 deaths last year, the world’s highest recorded number.
Because this is a bacterial disease, it can easily be treated with antibiotics – and fortunately there are very few resistance problems in this case. For the moment at least.
The major issues with getting people treated are socioeconomic ones:
a lack of facilities and traditional shame over the disease made this tricky in outlying parts of Madagascar
Look, I’m not saying “don’t go to Madagascar”. It’s got a lot to offer: lemurs… and… stuff. But if you do go to Madagacar, it’s probably best to not end up in one of their prisons.
I’m sure you knew this already. I’m just saying that right now, it could be even worse than you expected.