Chinese authorities confirm positive case of bubonic plague

BEIJING: Local health authorities in China’s Inner Mongolia region have confirmed a suspected positive case of bubonic plague, which has persisted centuries after it caused the most deadly pandemic in human history.

According to China’s news agency, the Bayannur city health commission confirmed that the plague was diagnosed in the herdsman, and he was in stable condition undergoing treatment at a hospital.

Local authorities had also issued a third-level alert the second-lowest in a four-level system, warning people against hunting, eating, or transporting potentially infected animals, particularly marmots, and to report any dead or diseased rodents.

The news agency further reported that the warning will stay in place until the end of the year. The case was confirmed and officially diagnosed by doctors today (Tuesday).

Bayannur health authorities are now urging people to take extra precautions to minimize the risk of human-to-human transmission, and to avoid hunting, skinning, or eating animals that could cause infection. The authorities also warned the public to report findings of dead or sick marmots.

Plague, caused by bacteria and transmitted through flea bites and infected animals, killed an estimated 50 million people in Europe during the Black Death pandemic in the Middle Ages. Modern antibiotics can prevent complications and death if administered quickly enough.

Bubonic plague, which is one of the plague’s three forms, causes painful, swollen lymph nodes, as well as fever, chills, and coughing. The bubonic plague is fatal in about 30 percent to 60 percent of untreated cases, the World Health Organization informed.

The marmot – a type of large ground squirrel – is believed to have caused the 1911 pneumonic plague epidemic, which killed about 63,000 people in northeast China.