Madagascar village 'hit by bubonic plague' | Hacker News Reader

Madagascar village 'hit by bubonic plague'

bbc.co.uk

46 pointsrb2e31 comments

Madagascar is such a beautiful country, with lots of natural resources (oil, rare timber, minerals) and 90% of its fauna and flora is endemic. It's huge, has almost any kind of scenery you could wish and is easily one of the most interesting places to visit on earth.

Those interested should check out Sir David Attenborough's 4 part series on Madagascar: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/collections/p00db3n8

Yet it suffers from extreme poverty, an unbelievable level of corruption at all levels, and an education system that leaves everyone behind (school isn't free, so most kids can't afford it).

In recent decades, poverty has made the population desperate, levels of violence have risen, kidnappings are common, there is no real reason to think that the current elections are going to solve anything, those aspiring to be in power have proven to be as corrupted as those who are already in place.

On top of that, during the cyclone season (hurricane/typhoon if you come from other parts of the world), the island becomes a giant target and gets hammered by bad weather: houses destroyed, roads cuts, etc

In that context, it isn't surprising to learn that old diseases like the bubonic plague could easily get a hold; sanitation isn't high in the list of priorities.

"In that context, it isn't surprising to learn that old diseases like the bubonic plague could easily get a hold; sanitation isn't high in the list of priorities."

It should be noted that plague is still transmitted in the American Southwest on a sporadic, but regular basis.

"And, indeed, as he listened to the cries of joy rising from the town, Rieux remembered that such joy is always imperiled. He knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from books: that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good; that it can lie dormant for years and years in furniture and linen- chests; that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, and bookshelves; and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city." -- Camus, "The Plague".

Is it too soon to say they should have closed their seaport?

For anyone who doesn't get it: http://www.kongregate.com/games/DarkRealmStudios/pandemic-2

I was thinking how easy it would be if it STARTED in Madagascar.

Typically, that's the only way you ever win.

uh oh

Maybe take your witty little contributions over to reddit instead?

Did you really feel you needed to respond to them this way? A simple downvote just wasn't enough?

Serious HN is serious.

Really, though... It was a great game and an unfortunately obvious reference if you've ever played Pandemic 2 for any length of time (and you're only missing out on the fun cleverness if you haven't).

It is ironic, isn't it.

Will we crack such jokes if disease hits, say, Berlin? Or there is a reprise of 9/11? No, we won't, because it isn't some third-world country full of "colored people."

What a disgrace.

Are you aware of the meme? There was a risk-like game where you played the role of a deadly disease. The game mechanics often left Madagascar as the last hold out of humanity.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-down-everything

It's a Flash game reference AND an old Internet meme (based on it) reference.

Chill out, dude.

I don't know who "we" is for you, but we will

I go to hacker news to avoid comments like this.

> I go to HN to avoid freedom of speech.

FTFY

I never realized until recently how the high mobility of goods, flexible trade system etc. brought about by the rise of the Mongol empire a few centuries before, allowed the Bubonic Plague to spread from south-east asia through to the middle east and europe in a relatively short time. Your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness.

Mobility of goods has been overall more positive to those involved than negative, all factors included.

In the long-term, sure, but when it wiped out a third of Europe, that was definitely not more positive than negative.

You fail to see the bigger picture: - exchange of knowledge/technology - exchange of goods - exchange of cultural assets (goods, ideas and languages) - establishment of trade routes and advancement of transportation systems (roads, sea routes)

It was massively positive overall. And while the plague killed many people, mankind learned a lot from it: we lacked hygiene and we were able to identify measured to further protect ourselves from such afflictions.

We didn't learn anything from it, we had no idea what caused the Black Death until well into the modern age, centuries after it actually happened.

While you might argue that development was a net positive overall, we didn't actually learn a whole lot from it - plague was a recurring problem in Europe for centuries. For example, major epidemic we all think of as "The Black Death" kicked off in 1347, but there were still major outbreaks (the Great Plague of London) in 1665.

If any one disease is responsible for hygiene and disease prevention in the west, I think you can make a much stronger case for the Cholera outbreaks in the mid-1800's.

You should read the Dune series.

Who says I haven't.

Funny, I've been wondering when that little bug was going to surface again. Interesting that it sprung up in a relatively secluded island nation which would be comparatively easy to quarantine. If that hit in the slums of India or Brazil...CDC would be losing their shit right now.

Speaking of the CDC, nothing about the outbreak on their website right now. Neither in the news or outbreak sections. I also checked the travel section and the plague does not show up on the radar as a disease with a history in that nation.

Bubonic plague is a common problem with wildlife in California, which has which has wild reservoirs. CDC isn't "losing their shit" because this is something they already manage.

California and much of the Western U.S. It's actually gotten worse in recent years as urban areas push into formerly wild areas.

Yeah...that's really not how the CDC works.

Also, if you refer to this map, you'll find that "There's plague in Madagascar" really isn't, well, news to the CDC:

http://www.cdc.gov/plague/images/WorldPlagueMapWebSmall.jpg

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