Health authorities in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China, issued a level 3 alert on Sunday after a local farmer contracted the plague bubonic.
While the world is currently battling a new virus, old threats are still hovering above our heads and just waiting to resurface. Evidenced by this new case report.
In the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, a shepherd suspected of having contracted the bubonic plague would indeed have been hospitalized this Sunday in the city of Bayannur. City health officials quickly confirmed the diagnosis. The patient is now in stable condition.
Following this report, the city's Sanitary Commission decided to issue a third level alert (on a scale of four), urging the population to no longer hunt, consume or transport wild animals likely to carry the bacteria.
In addition, people were also asked to report any dead or sick rodents. These preventive measures should normally run until the end of the year, according to the New-York Times , with the aim of preventing any further spread of the disease.
The plague bacillus is usually transmitted by rodent-infected fleas. But in Inner Mongolia, marmots are the main reservoir .
The incubation period is two to six days. As for symptoms, chills and fever appear quickly, accompanied by muscle and joint pain, headaches and a feeling of great fatigue.
In the first 24 hours, the patient also feels localized pain in one or more lymph nodes, close to where the chip introduced the bacillus.
Recall thattwo Mongols died of the plague in May 2019 after consuming raw marmot kidneys . The death of this couple, members of the Kazakh minority, had led to the quarantine of the area in the province of Bayan-Ulgii, bordering Russia and China.
As a reminder, the offending bacterium, Yersinia pesti , is none other than the one that caused the Black Death in the Middle Ages (at least 25 million victims). A few months ago, researchers discovered a new mass grave in England, revealing at least 48 bodies of victims of this deadly epidemic.
Finally, let's remember that if taking antibiotics, delivered early enough, can cure it, bubonic plague still kills. Between 2010 and 2015, more than 3,000 people contracted the plague and 584 died from it , according to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO). Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Peru are the most active foci.
