BEIJING (AP) – While China appears to have reduced coronavirus cases to near zero, other infectious threats remain, and local health authorities have announced a suspected case of bubonic plague in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Bayannur District authorities lifted the plague warning on Sunday, ordering residents not to hunt wild animals such as groundhogs and send anyone with a fever or other possible signs of infection to be treated.
Plague can be fatal in up to 90% of infected people if left untreated, mainly with various types of antibiotics.
Pneumonic plague can develop from bubonic plague and results in a severe lung infection causing shortness of breath, headache, and cough.
China has largely eradicated the plague, but occasional cases are still reported, especially among hunters who come in contact with fleas that carry the bacteria. The last known major outbreak was in 2009, when several people died in the city of Ziketan, in Qinghai province, on the Tibetan plateau.
Along with the coronavirus, first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, China has dealt with African swine fever, which has devastated pig herds.
China has gone weeks without reporting a new death from the coronavirus, and on Monday reported only one new case of local infection in the capital, Beijing.
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