Bubonic Plague Case Causes China to Raise Alert in Its North Region

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Authorities in China have stepped up health security measures after a city in Inner Mongolia (an autonomous region of the country) confirmed a case of bubonic plague.

According to reports from state authorities, the patient, a peasant from the city of Bayannur, is in quarantine and in stable condition.

Officials have decreed level three alert – which bans hunting and consumption of animals that could be carrying the plague and urges people to report suspected cases to the authorities.

The new case was reported on Saturday, July 4th. It is still unclear how the patient would have become infected.

Fatal, but treatable

Bubonic plague cases occur from time to time around the world. There was a 300-cases outbreak in Madagascar in 2017.

In May last year, two people in Mongolia died of the plague, which was contracted after eating raw groundhog meat.

An official from the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in Ulan Bator, neighboring country Mongolia’s capital, told the BBC that raw groundhog meat and the animal’s kidneys are used as a popular medicine in the country. Groundhogs are carriers of the plague bacteria and are associated with cases of the plague in the country. Groundhog hunting is illegal.

But it is unlikely that the bubonic plague – which has been called the black plague – will lead to a new epidemic. “Unlike the 14th century, we now have an understanding of how this disease is transmitted,” Shanti Kappagoda, a physician at Stanford Health Care, told the Healthline website. “We know how to prevent it. We also know how to treat patients who are infected with effective antibiotics.”

In the 14th century, the black plague killed some 50 million people in Africa, Asia, and Europe. The last major outbreak in London occurred in 1665, killing off approximately one fifth of the city’s population. In the 19th century, there was another outbreak in China and India that killed over 12 million people.

Source: BBC