Want Plague, This Is How You Get Plague
According to the World Health Organisation, Madagascar has since August 2017 been experiencing a large outbreak of bubonic and pneumonic plague affecting major cities and rural areas. The main cause of these plagues is a result from exposure to the body fluids of dead humans and animals. The other name for this plague if you're not that clued up with history is Black Death, due to an outbreak in the Late Middle Ages that caused the deaths of a third of the human population, the most deadly disease outbreak in history.
How did Madagascar manage to resurrect the worst plague known to the human race? Well by doing exactly that, digging up the dead. It's a traditional practice known as Famadihana, which sees locals dig up deceased relatives and dance with them before they are re-buried.
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Now you're probably thinking well they probably don't know any better, but unfortunately they do, they now have things like hospitals and doctors in Madagascar, they even have a laboratory ironically named after Louis Pasteur that did the analysis and confirmed to plague. Most of the people who are taking part in this traditional practice have outright refused to stop digging up their buddies. The notion of not playing with dead things is not all that new, it actually goes all the way back to ancient Egypt and it is even mentioned in the bible. To make matters even worse, the plague has now mutated into a more dangerous airborne strain and as many as 50 aids works have recently been infected.
We probably shouldn't make fun of the very serious situation, but when people stubbornly just refuse to heed advise that can save their lives, hey, what can you do? So if you know of anyone traveling to or from Madagascar, maybe a little heads up would be a good idea. Sharing is caring.
"True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance." - Akhenaton