National emergency: Schools closed and 15,000 teachers trained in how to combat BLACK DEAT

Major cities and rural areas across vast swathes of the country have been affected by the disease, often referred to as the Black Death.

So far, 113 deaths have been reported in the crisis-hit country, with a further 122 people undergoing treatment.

And since August, a terrifying 1,554 cases have been reported, a mix of bubonic and pneumonic outbreaks, leaving local hospitals struggling to cope.

Schools across the infected areas have been shut down, leaving 415,000 children out of education as authorities frantically try to stem the epidemic.

But UNICEF and the country’s Ministry of Education are desperate to stop the disease spreading to thousands of young children.

Now, 15,000 teachers and administrative school staff are being trained up to spot the signs.

The UN Children’s Fund has called for urgent training “to ensure that children with symptoms are properly referred to treatment centres without causing stigmatisation or panic”.

UNICEF has also been shelling out funds on improving treatment and educating people on proper burials.

The effort comes amid claims corpses have been dug up, leading the disease to spread further.

Plague was one of a series of infectious diseases which killed around 50 million people in Europe during the Middle Ages.

The most common strain is the bubonic plague, which spreads through bites from infected fleas.

But the disease is being passed on from person to person in Madagascar through the more contagious pneumonic form. 

Dr Arthur Rakotonjanabelo from the World Health Organisation (WHO) said: “Plague is a disease of poverty, because it thrives in places with poor sanitary conditions and health services.”

And he warned the disease has now spread to parts of Madagascar which had not seen the plague since at least 1950.

Nine countries across south-east Africa are also being monitored as health authorities scramble to stop the outbreak spreading even further.

South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Comoros, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Reunion have all been placed on high alert by the WHO.