A Mongolian man has died of bubonic plague, the Ministry of Public Health has announced, fearing the nation could experience a large-scale resurgence of the disease.
The 42-year-old man, from the province of Khovd in western Mongolia, contracted the disease on Tuesday night. The Ministry of Public Health said the victim had purchased two dead marmots, ground squirrels, which are known to carry feathers that spread the disease shortly before his death.
Hunting marmots is illegal in Mongolia, but many see the animal as a delicacy and eliminate the associated health risks. So far this year, 12 laboratory-confirmed cases of bubonic plague have been registered in the country. Last month, a 15-year-old boy died of the disease.
In July, Mongolia quarantined an entire region, after two people identified with symptoms of bubonic plague. The country’s National Center for Zoonotic Diseases has reported that 17 of Mongolia’s 21 provinces are at risk of an outbreak.
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However, the threat to neighboring countries such as Russia is almost non-existent. The disease is not transmitted from person to person, nor is it contagious. It spreads from one animal to another through meat. Vladimir Nikiforov, the chief infectious disease specialist at Russia’s Federal Biomedical Agency, recently described the plague as “Absolutely no threat.”
If left untreated, the plague is very deadly. Symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, and vomiting.
In the 14th century, the plague and its variants, then known as the Black Death, killed 200 million people worldwide. Today, it is much less prevalent, with typically only 650 cases recorded worldwide.
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