As if the new coronavirus wasn’t enough to worry about, a disease that caused the Black Death and killed about 50 million people in the 14th century may have raised its ugly head again, according to a report.
Officials in China are on high alert after a suspected case of bubonic plague was discovered in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the BBC reported.
A pastor in the city of Bayannur, about 560 miles northwest of Beijing, is in stable condition under quarantine, while a second suspected case involving a 15-year-old boy is being investigated, according to the report, which quoted the local media.
It is unclear how or why the pastor could have been infected, according to the BBC, which reported that the teenager had apparently been in contact with a groundhog hunted by a dog.
Authorities have imposed a Level 3 alert until the end of the year. It prohibits the hunting and consumption of animals that may be carrying the plague and asks people to report suspected cases.
Despite the fact that bubonic plague, caused by a bacterial infection, was one of the most feared diseases on Earth, it can now be easily treated with antibiotics.
He was responsible for the Black Death, which killed some 50 million people in Africa, Asia, and Europe during the 14th century.
But there have been several large outbreaks since then. It killed about a fifth of London’s population during the Great Plague of 1665, while more than 12 million died of the disease during the 19th century in China and India.
In 2017, an outbreak in Madagascar saw more than 300 cases, although a study in the medical journal The Lancet found that fewer than 30 people died.
In May 2019, two people in Mongolia died from the plague, who contracted after eating the raw meat of a groundhog, the same type of rodent that the 15-year-old came into contact with.
If left untreated, bubonic plague, which is generally transmitted from animals to humans by fleas, has a 30 to 60 percent death rate, according to the BBC.
Symptoms include high fever, chills, nausea, weakness, and swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit, or groin.
On the positive side, it is unlikely that any case will lead to an epidemic.
“Unlike the fourteenth century, we now understand how this disease is transmitted,” Dr Shanti Kappagoda, an infectious disease doctor at Stanford Health Care, told the Heathline news site, the BBC reported.
“We know how to prevent it. We can also treat patients infected with effective antibiotics, “added Kappagoda.
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