Precautions after bubonic plague case

Special Desk

After confirmation of a case of bubonic plague in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region authorities in China have stepped up precautions.

According to state reports, the Bayannur patient, a herdsman is in quarantine and in a stable condition. Officials issued a Level 3 warning, the second-lowest in a four-tier system. The level 3 alert forbids the hunting and eating of animals that could carry plague and Cases of bubonic plague are periodically reported around the world. Also it calls on the public to report suspected cases.

The bubonic plague, caused by bacterial infection, can be deadly, but can be treated with commonly available antibiotics.

The new case was first reported as suspected bubonic plague at a hospital in Urad Middle Banner, in Bayannur city. It is not yet clear how or why the patient might have become infected.

In May last year, two people in the country of Mongolia died from the plague, which they contracted after eating the raw meat of a marmot, a rodent type.

A World Health Organization official in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, had told the BBC that raw marmot meat and kidney was thought to be a folk remedy for good health.

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The rodent is a known carrier of the plague bacteria, and is commonly associated with plague cases in the country. Hunting marmots is illegal. The bubonic plague is characterised by swollen lymph nodes. It can be hard to identify in its early stages because symptoms, which usually develop after three to seven days, are flu-like.