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BEIJING: Brucellosis, a bacterial disease with flu-like symptoms, has infected more than 6,000 people in a single outbreak in northwest China.
Generally caused by contact with animals, the outbreak in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, was due to a leak at a vaccine plant, according to the Lanzhou Health Commission. People continue to receive treatment in hospitals even though the outbreak occurred a year ago.
China’s top legislature passed a law last month to establish biosecurity risk prevention and control protocols and systems to respond to risks, including sudden outbreaks.
WHAT IS BRUCELLOSIS?
Brucellosis is a zoonotic infectious disease or a disease of animals that can be transmitted to humans. It is caused by a bacteria that affects sheep, goats, cows, pigs, and even dogs and is reported in many countries.
Humans generally contract the disease through direct contact with infected animals by eating contaminated animal products, such as unpasteurized milk or cheese, or by inhaling airborne agents.
Person-to-person transmission is extremely rare, according to the World Health Organization.
Symptoms in humans include fever and weakness, which appear within a few weeks. The death rate is low, although complications can lead to death. Some symptoms, such as joint pain, can become chronic and never go away.
WHAT HAPPENED IN LANZHOU?
The latest outbreak in Lanzhou was first discovered in November 2019 when some students at the Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute tested positive for brucellosis. By the end of December, at least 181 people at the institute had been infected, according to the provincial health authority.
The outbreak even spread to Heilongjiang province in the northeast corner of China, where 13 people working at the veterinary institute in August 2019 tested positive, state media reported.
The government has tested 55,725 people in the city, of whom 6,620 are positive for brucellosis as of now, the Lanzhou government said at a press conference, according to a report Thursday by state-run Global Times.
The outbreak originated from a biopharmaceutical factory owned by China’s animal husbandry industry listed in Shanghai, according to a statement from the Lanzhou health commission in September.
The factory had used expired disinfectants between July and August 2019 to make brucellosis vaccines, leaving the bacteria in their waste gases. The contaminated gas then formed aerosols that drifted downwind to the veterinary institute.
IS BRUCELLOSIS COMMON IN CHINA?
About half a million infected people are reported each year worldwide, with China generally accounting for tens of thousands.
In 2019, China reported 44,036 cases with one death, up from 37,947 cases and zero deaths a year earlier.
The first reported cases in China occurred in the southwestern city of Chongqing in 1905. China experienced a generalized epidemic of brucellosis in the 1950s and 1960s, according to state media.
Brucellosis is more common in the pastoral areas of western and northern China. It is categorized as a class B infectious disease on a three-tier system.
Last year, China reported more than 10 million cases of infectious diseases, such as brucellosis, scarlet fever, dysentery and dengue.
