Disease

Nigeria - Hepatitis E

Since Feb. 2017, Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection was confirmed in 8 local government areas (LGAs) of Borno, with transmission still ongoing in Rann Kala Balge. The total number of jaundice cases reported since that time is 1262.

Infected Fugitives

Black Death patients are escaping hospital and refusing treatment sparking fears it may spread. Chief of medicine at a plague hospital in Madagascar says patients are scared of needles and not used to hospital treatment.

Security guards at the Central Anti-Plague Hospital in Ambohimindra, Madagascar, are tasked with keeping patients in as well as making sure those arriving follow safety procedures.

Malagasy people have also been told not to carry out their traditional burial tradition of Famidihana which involves digging up their dead relatives every seven years. It means 'turning the bones' and sees families cleaning the remains, rewrapping them and reburying them while other family members perform a special dance.

The African island's government has told citizens to pause the tradition for fear the plague bacteria is still active in the corpses and can be spread to the living.