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.
Authorities said they were also investigating a second suspicious case, according to the China Global Times.
Bubonic plague was once the world’s most feared disease, but is now easily treatable.
The first case was 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 second suspicious case involves a 15-year-old boy, who had apparently been in contact with a groundhog chased by a dog, a Global Times tweet said.
A level 3 alert has been implemented, which prohibits the hunting and consumption of animals that may be plague carriers and calls on the public to report suspicious cases, until the end of the year.
What is bubonic plague?
The bubonic plague, caused by a bacterial infection, was responsible for one of the deadliest epidemics in human history, the Black Death, which killed some 50 million people in Africa, Asia and Europe in the 14th century.
There have been a handful of 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 in outbreaks during the 19th century in China and India.
But today it can be treated with antibiotics. If left untreated, the disease, which is generally transmitted from animals to humans by fleas, has a 30-60% mortality rate.
Plague symptoms include high fever, chills, nausea, weakness, and swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit, or groin.
Could there be another epidemic?
Bubonic cases are rare, but there are still some outbreaks of the disease from time to time.
Madagascar saw more than 300 cases during an outbreak in 2017. However, a study in the medical journal The Lancet found that fewer than 30 people died.
In May last year, two people in the country of Mongolia died from the plague, who contracted after eating the raw meat of a groundhog, the same type of rodent that the second suspected case came into contact with.
However, it is unlikely that any case will 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.”
