PLAGUE, A REEMERGING DISEASE IN MADAGASCAR

Human cases of plague, which had virtually disappeared in Madagascar a fter the 1930s, reappeared in 1990 with more than 200 confirmed or pre sumptive cases reported each year since. In the port of Mahajanga, pla gue has been reintroduced, and epidemics occur every year. In Antanana rivo, the capital, the number of new cases has increased, and many rod ents are infected with Yersinia pestis. Despite surveillance for the s ensitivity of Y. pestis and fleas to drugs and insecticides and contro l measures to prevent the spread of sporadic cases, the elimination of plague has been difficult because the host and reservoir of the bacil lus, Rattus rattus, is both a domestic and a sylvatic rat.