Plague kills 47 in Madagascar, moving into the slums of Antananarivo

Madagascar is battling to contain an outbreak of a plague similar to the Black Death that swept medieval Europe that has killed 47 people and is spreading to the capital Antananarivo.

The health ministry said on Monday there had been 138 suspected cases this year, and warned the death toll was likely to rise in coming months.

Two people had been infected in Antananarivo, one of them dying, and health workers had mounted a pest control campaign through slum areas around the city, the World Health Organisation said.

The health ministry's secretary general, Philemon Tafangy, said "two hundred households have been disinfected" this month.

He said those who had contact with the infected had been given antibiotics in a bid to arrest the spread the disease.

The WHO last week said 40 people had died as a result of plague, which was first identified in August.