- A pastor in China contracted bubonic plague.
- Health officials in a Chinese region of Inner Mongolia have banned the hunting or consumption of wild animals believed to transmit the highly infectious disease.
- The disease is now easily treatable with antibiotics, but there are still occasional outbreaks, such as one in Madagascar in 2017.
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LONDON – Authorities in an autonomous region of northern China issued a health warning after a local farmer contracted the bubonic plague.
A pastor was reportedly in stable condition after it was confirmed that he had contracted the disease on Sunday, according to the New York Times.
Health officials in Bayan Mur, a city in Inner Mongolia, issued a third-level alert on Sunday, according to Reuters, which is the second-lowest of four levels.
The alert prohibits the hunting or consumption of wild animals that may carry the plague and will be in place until the end of the year. Locals have also been told to report finding sick and dead animals, as well as people showing signs of fever or sudden death.
“Currently, there is a risk of a human plague epidemic spreading in this city. The public should improve their awareness and self-protection ability, and report abnormal health conditions immediately,” said the local health authority, according to the China Daily newspaper. .
Bubonic plague is a highly communicable disease caused by a bacterial infection and was the cause of the Black Death, which spread throughout much of Asia, Europe and Africa in the 14th century and claimed up to 50 million lives.
It is now easily treatable with antibiotics, which means that cases are rare and an epidemic is highly unlikely, and the infected patient is in a stable condition, according to the Global Times.
But there are still occasional outbreaks of the disease: Madasagcar recorded more than 300 cases in 2017, according to a BBC report.
A Mongolian couple also died last year after contracting bubonic plague when they ate raw groundhog meat.
