Image copyright
fake pictures
Smear of bubonic plague, prepared from lymph removed from an adenopathic lymph node from a plague patient.
Authorities in China have stepped up precautions after a city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region confirmed a case of bubonic plague.
According to state reports, the Bayannur patient, a pastor, is in quarantine and in a stable condition.
Officials issued a Level 3 warning, the second lowest in a four-tier system.
Bubonic plague, caused by a bacterial infection, can be fatal, but can be treated with commonly available antibiotics.
The new case was first reported as suspected bubonic plague on Saturday at a hospital in Urad Middle Banner, in the city of Bayannur.
It is not yet clear how or why the patient could have been infected.
The Level 3 alert prohibits the hunting and consumption of animals that may be plague carriers, and asks the public to report suspected cases.
Fatal but treatable
Bubonic plague cases are reported regularly around the world.
Madagascar saw more than 300 cases during an outbreak in 2017.
In May last year, two people in the country of Mongolia died from the plague, which they contracted after eating the raw meat of a groundhog, a type of rodent.
An official with the World Health Organization in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, told the BBC that raw groundhog meat and kidney were considered a popular remedy for good health.
- Black Death ‘spread by humans, not rats’
- Why has the United States not eradicated the plague?
The rodent is a known carrier of the plague bacteria, and is commonly associated with plague cases in the country. Hunting groundhogs is illegal.
Bubonic plague is characterized by swollen lymph nodes. It can be difficult to identify in its early stages because symptoms, which usually develop after three to seven days, are similar to those of the flu.
But bubonic plague, infamously known as the Black Death, is unlikely to lead to an epidemic.
“Unlike in the 14th century, we now understand how this disease is transmitted,” Dr. Shanti Kappagoda, an infectious disease physician at Stanford Health Care, told the Heathline news site.
“We know how to prevent it. We can also treat patients infected with effective antibiotics.”
The Black Death caused around 50 million deaths in Africa, Asia, and Europe in the 14th century.
His last terrifying outbreak in London was the Great Plague of 1665, which killed about a fifth of the city’s inhabitants. In the 19th century there was an outbreak of plague in China and India, which killed more than 12 million.
