Malagasy authorities on Friday announced a ban on prison visits to prevent the spread of a plague epidemic into the correctional facilities.
Health authorities in the island nation say the disease has killed 36 people in the last two months. During that period, 231 cases were reported.
“In order to protect prisoners from the plague that is spreading outside the prison, we have decided to suspend family visits,” AFP reports prisons administrator Arsen Ralisaona to say.
The risk of contamination is high in crowded places such as prisons, where conditions are usually unhygienic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday delivered nearly 1.2 million doses of antibiotics and released US$1.5 million in emergency funds to help in the fight against the plague outbreak in Madagascar.
The doses are enough to treat up to 5000 patients and protect up to 100 000 people who may be exposed to the disease.
Most of the 231 infections and 33 deaths that the Ministry of Health has reported since August are associated with pneumonic plague – a more dangerous form of the disease that affects the lungs and is transmitted through coughing at close range.
