An outbreak of pneumonic and bubonic plague has forced evacuation of nearly 80 Mormon missionaries from the southeastern African island nation of Madagascar.
LDS Church officials stressed Thursday that the evacuation was precautionary and that none of the missionaries had shown signs of the deadly disease.
“Missionaries serving on the island of Madagascar are in the process of being transferred out of this area or temporarily reassigned to other missions,” the Utah-based faith stated in a news release.
The evacuation involved only Mormon missionaries on the main island, not those serving on the islands of Mauritius and Reunion, which administratively are also within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Madagascar Antananarivo Mission.
Of the 79 evacuated missionaries, 69 will be either relocated or reassigned to yet-to-be-determined missions. Ten missionaries near the end of their service will return home.
“Ensuring the health and safety of our missionaries is our top priority,” the statement noted. “ In recent weeks, measures have been taken to reduce risk to missionaries, including providing them with prescription medication to help prevent plague and asking them to remain in their apartments.”
Missionaries’ families have been kept apprised of the situation. It was not immediately known if any of them were from Utah.
According to the World Health Organization, as of Tuesday 849 suspected or confirmed plague cases had been reported in Madagascar. Nearly 40 health care workers treating the sick also had contracted plague since the outbreak was first noted Aug. 1.
Sixty-seven people had died from the disease, WHO reported.
Madagascar is well-acquainted with plague. WHO officials say the usual pattern is for cases to spike between September and April along the island’s rural plateau. this latest outbreak broke into urban areas, including the capital, Antananarivo, and the port of Toamasina.
The LDS Church currently lists 11,340 members and 39 congregations in Madagascar, a nation of 23 million people. It was not known Thursday morning if any of them had become infected with or died from plague, church spokesman Eric Hawkins said.
LDS Church fortunes have gone through cycles of both growth and stagnation in Madagascar, according to independent Mormon demographics researcher Matthew Martinich, and currently conversions are in a “slow phase.”
“Growth in Madagascar has really ebbed and flowed since the church was established there initially about 25 years ago,” he said Thursday. “At times, growth has been among the most rapid the church has seen in Africa and, at times, it’s been among the slowest.”
Martinich added that “political instability, poverty, converts joining the church for secondary gain and leadership development have been major challenges for growth.”