When a deadly epidemic arrives, local traditions and rituals may do more harm than good. Madagascar’s authorities have urged residents to abandon the Famadihana ritual, citing concerns about a plague outbreak. The ritual, among other things, stipulates that relatives must perform ritual dances with their exhumed relatives.” ‘If a person dies of pneumonic plague and is then interred in a tomb that is subsequently opened for a Famadihana, the bacteria can still be transmitted and contaminate whoever
handles the body,” Willy Randriamarotia, Madagascar’s health ministry chief of staff, was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. According to the World Health Organization, more than 1,000 cases of plague have been registered in Madagascar since August 2017. 300 of them were confirmed by laboratory tests, with the death toll already standing at 124 people. The disease has spread to 37 of the 114 regions of the island state. CONTINUE
