China lifts plague quarantine

Date: Jul-24-2014 On Thursday, the Chinese authorities lifted the 9-day quarantine they had imposed in a

part of Yumen City in northwest Gansu Province after a resident had died of plague on 16

July.

The authorities had effectively sealed off the old downtown area of the northwestern city,

stopping 30,000 residents leaving the area. They also quarantined 151 people who had been in

direct contact with the 38-year-old man who died, and who is thought to have caught the disease from

a dead marmot, a member of the squirrel family.

The state broadcaster China Central Television says the man lived in a township called Chijin,

which had also been sealed off.

Chinese state media report that during the quarantine, disease prevention and control

specialists from the National Health and Family Planning Commission, together with local

authorities, carried out disinfection and rat extermination, and ran education sessions to raise awareness of how people can guard against infection.

Plague is active in the local rat population

According to Chinese experts, the plague is present in an "active," communicable phase in

the local rat population.

According to Chinese experts, the plague is present in an "active," communicable phase in the local rat population.

No further cases of the disease had been reported by Tuesday, according to Xinhua news agency,

which notes that in China, plague is categorized as a "Class A infectious disease, the most

serious under China's Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases."

Plague is a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis that affects humans and

other mammals and is probably most well-known for wiping out a significant proportion of the

population of Europe in the Middle Ages.

Humans usually contract the disease after coming into contact with an animal infected with

plague, or after being bitten by a rodent flea that is carrying the bacterium.

Unless it is treated promptly with antibiotics, the disease causes serious illness or death

within 24 hours.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cases of human plague continue

to occur in the western United States, but in terms of global numbers, the vast majority occur in

Africa and Asia.

Victim is thought to have caught plague from infected marmot

The South China Morning Post reports that the recent Chinese victim is thought to have come

into contact with an infected, dead marmot that he chopped up to feed to his dog - he went on to develop a

fever later that day.

Infection by Y. pestis bacteria causes three types of plague:

Bubonic - where bacteria infect the lymph system, usually as a result of a bite from an

infected flea or rodent

Septicemic - where bacteria enter the bloodstream. As in bubonic, this mostly happens as a

result of a bite from an infected flea or rodent, but it can also occur from untreated

bubonic or pneumonic plague

Pneumonic - this is the most serious form, where the bacteria infect the lungs and cause

pneumonia.

The Chinese man who died is thought to have contracted the pneumonic form.

Pneumonic plague is also contagious - if someone has pneumonic plague and coughs, droplets

containing plague bacteria are released into the air and infect other people who breathe them

in.

China has seen few outbreaks of plague in recent years. Most happen in remote rural areas in

the west of the country. State media say there were 12 cases and three deaths in the province of

Qinghai in 2009, and one in Sichuan in 2012.

In 2008, Medical News Today reported how scientists suggested the reason plague is so lethal is

because of a single genetic mutation.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

View all articles written by Catharine, or follow her on:

Courtesy: Medical News Today Note: Any medical information available in this news section is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional.