Dr. Jean-Claude Randrianarisoa

Dr. Jean-Claude Randrianarisoa is a senior internal medicine physician at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Joseph Raseta Befelatanana in Antananarivo — one of Madagascar's two major academic teaching hospitals located in the capital. With 17 years of specialist experience, Dr. Randrianarisoa has developed expertise uniquely tailored to Madagascar's distinctive and complex disease landscape. Madagascar is one of only a few countries in the world where bubonic and pneumonic plague remains endemic, and Dr. Randrianarisoa is experienced in its clinical recognition, differential diagnosis from other febrile illnesses, and management with standard antibiotic protocols — a skill set that few physicians outside Madagascar possess. Beyond plague, his patient population presents with the full spectrum of tropical and infectious diseases including malaria, typhoid, and tuberculosis, alongside an increasing burden of HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes driven by urbanisation. He leads the internal medicine ward at CHU Befelatanana, supervising inpatient consultations, mentoring resident physicians, and serving as a teaching physician for the Université d'Antananarivo's medical faculty. His bilingual competency in French and Malagasy enables effective communication with patients from all backgrounds.

Dr. Randrianarisoa completed his Doctorat en Médecine at the Faculté de Médecine d'Antananarivo at the Université d'Antananarivo — Madagascar's only medical school and the training institution for the vast majority of the country's physicians. He earned his Diplôme d'Études Spécialisées (DES) en Médecine Interne through a competitive residency programme undertaken at CHU Befelatanana and affiliated teaching hospitals in Antananarivo. He has participated in continuing medical education programmes supported by the WHO Madagascar Country Office and the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar — one of the leading infectious disease research institutions in the Indian Ocean region — including advanced training in plague clinical management and laboratory diagnostics.

Dr. Randrianarisoa's most distinctive clinical expertise is in the recognition and management of plague in its bubonic, septicaemic, and pneumonic forms — a rare but life-threatening condition that affects Madagascar every year, particularly during the October-to-April plague season. He is proficient in differentiating plague from other causes of febrile lymphadenopathy and from septic shock, and in initiating prompt antibiotic therapy with streptomycin or gentamicin alongside supportive care. His broader internal medicine skills encompass malaria case management, antiretroviral therapy for HIV, management of diabetic ketoacidosis and heart failure, diagnostic lumbar puncture, pleural aspiration, and abdominal paracentesis for massive ascites. He also manages schistosomiasis — endemic in Madagascar's river valleys — and its hepatic complications.

Dr. Randrianarisoa has collaborated with the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar on clinical studies examining plague epidemiology in Antananarivo and on the clinical outcomes of antibiotic treatment for pneumonic plague. He has co-authored articles in the Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease journal on the burden of non-communicable diseases at CHU Befelatanana and has presented at the annual conference of the Société Malgache de Médecine Interne on hypertension management challenges in Madagascar's public hospital system.

Dr. Randrianarisoa consults in French and Malagasy and is accessible to French-speaking international patients, expatriates, humanitarian workers, and members of the Malagasy diaspora returning from France, Réunion, or Mayotte. He is particularly valuable for patients experiencing unusual febrile illness in Madagascar, where the differential diagnosis must include plague alongside more globally common infections. For patients requiring specialist care beyond Madagascar's capacity — such as advanced cardiology or oncology — he provides referral coordination to South Africa or France and supplies comprehensive medical documentation for specialist review.

Dr. Randrianarisoa was formally recognised by the WHO Madagascar Country Office for his significant contributions to bubonic plague clinical surveillance and case management training — a distinctive and critical competency given Madagascar's status as one of the world's most active plague-endemic countries. He was also recognized by the Université d'Antananarivo Faculty of Medicine for excellence in internal medicine medical education.

He received the Ordre des Médecins de Madagascar Award for Sustained Clinical Excellence, presented to physicians who demonstrate an exceptional long-term commitment to patient care in the challenging resource environment of Madagascar's public hospital system. He is an active member of the Ordre des Médecins and contributes to internal medicine resident training at CHU Joseph Raseta Befelatanana.