Written and researched by Gary Walton
As the plague fears grow in Madagascar, Malawi became the tenth African nation put on alert for the spread of the killer disease, which is thought to be the biggest outbreak in 50 years.
Meanwhile, parents rushed to schools, causing panic in the Madagascan capital on Friday to collect their children after rumours emerged that students were being forced into having anti-plague vaccinations without their parent's consent.
But is the plague which is thought to have killed 400 million people in the 14th century confined to Madagascar and East Africa?
In June, July and August this year, the plague showed up in the U.S. Canada and Russia!
In early August 2017, The Apache County Health Department recently notified the public about a new prairie dog die-off in Concho, Arizona.
A previous die-off was reported in early July.
The notice bluntly states that "Old Concho is now considered a plague-positive area."
The die-off occurred earlier in July.
“Navajo County Health Department was also urging the public to take precautions to reduce their risk of exposure to this serious disease, after being found in rodents in the Arizona county.
In June, Two more cases of human plague were confirmed in New Mexico.
The New Mexico Department of Health said a 52-year-old woman and a 62-year-old woman were recently diagnosed with the plague. According to health officials, the first confirmed case of the plague this year occurred in June when a 63-year-old man contracted the plague.
All three patients, who live in Santa Fe County, were hospitalized but there were no deaths.
In July this year, Parks Canada closed off a Saskatchewan national park's remote prairie dog colony to the public after two rodents from the area tested positive for sylvatic plague — the same bacteria that causes the bubonic and pneumonic plagues in humans.
Also in July, The notorious bubonic plague, infected a Siberian youngster.
A ten-year-old boy in Siberia's Altai Republic contracted bubonic plague, local medics told TASS news agancy.
"The boy was hospitalized with a high fever and tested positive for bubonic plague.
His condition is not known.
All the 17 people, including six children, with whom the boy had contact, have been quarantined.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 13,000 people contracted bubonic plague in Asia, Africa and America between 2004 and 2013.
Roughly 900 of them died from the disease.
150 have died in Madagascar this year in just two and a half months, which is thought to be the biggest outbreak in 50 years.
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