[NYPost] The deadly plague sweeping Madagascar may have a particularly gruesome cause — a local tradition of dancing with dead bodies.
Health officials suspect it’s no coincidence that the outbreak — which has infected more than 1,100 people and killed 124 since August — coincides with the time of year when families customarily exhume the remains of dead relatives, wrap them in a sheet, and dance with them through the streets in a sacred ritual, AFP reports.
“If a person dies of pneumonic plague and is then interred in a tomb that is subsequently opened for [the ritual], the bacteria can still be transmitted and contaminate whoever handles the body,” said Willy Randriamarotia, Madagascar’s health ministry chief of staff. |