Another New Case of Bubonic Plague Reported in China

The region of Mongolia in China has once again reported another case of Bubonic plague, the local health official confirmed.

Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that the bacteria was transmitted to the patient through the wild rabbit he caught and consumed in Inner Mongolia's Huade county.

Bubonic plague is normally spread by infected fleas or animals.

Although bubonic plague is rarely transmitted from humans to humans, 28 people were in quarantine as a protective protocol.

This was not the first time the province reported a case of bubonic plague. In May, a couple from western Mongolia died from the same disease. It is reported that they consumed raw marmot kidney, which the locals believed to be a cure. The town where they lived was quarantined for six days.

Then recently, another two individuals were diagnosed with the more fatal pneumonic plague in China's capital, Beijing. The said strain of disease affects the respiratory organs and can be spread easily spread from human to human.

One patient is in stable condition, while the other one has gone ill again on Saturday. People who have contact with them were already released from medical quarantined after they have not shown any symptoms.

Plague, a Reemerging Disease

The plague has left a mark in human history after it has claimed the lives of more than 50 million people in Europe in the 14th century. History said that the pandemic started after a group of ships with dead and gravely-ill sailors docked at the Sicilian port of Messina.

Although the Black Death ended in the mid-14th century, the plague was not completely eradicated. Multiple outbreaks appear every now and then.

And recently, the disease is making a comeback. The World Health Organization already classified it as a re-emerging disease after it has affected at least 50,000 people around the world during the last two decades.

Worse, existing technologies will allow the bacteria, Yersinia pestis, to be converted into an aerosolized form and be used as a biothreat.

According to the CDC, the bacteria persist because of infected animals and fleas serve as long-term reservoirs.

The Plague All Over the World

The plague can be found all over the world, except in the region of Oceania, according to the WHO.

Since the 1990s, the most endemic countries are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and Peru, but the outbreaks also have occurred in some Asian and South American countries.

Madagascar is especially vulnerable. The epidemic season usually occurs between September to April. From August to November 2017 alone, the country's Ministry of Public Health reported 2,348 cases along with 202 deaths.

To combat this, WHO and the local health agency have implemented drastic changes in the method of diagnosis. For instance, they hired and trained a courier company dedicated on delivering the samples as quickly as possible to Laboratoire Central Peste (LPC), the WHO center for plague control and research.

The laboratory diagnosis must be obtained quickly since pneumonic plague patients might die within two to four days due to the short incubation period, said Jose Rovira Vilaplana of WHO.

READ: Preventing Black Death 2.0: Here's What to Do Against the Plague