The World: China issues bubonic plague alert, forbids eating risky animals

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 02:40 pm

Chinese authorities have issued a warning about the bubonic plague and forbidden eating certain animals after a suspected case was reported at a Mongolian hospital.

Known as the Black Death of the Middle Ages, the disease is highly infectious and often spread by the fleas on rodents.

The warning in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia comes a day after a hospital reported a patient suspected to have fallen ill with the potentially fatal disease.

The health committee of the city of Bayan Nur issued the third-level alert, the second lowest in a four-level system.

The alert forbids the hunting and eating of animals that could carry plague.

The public is also asked to report any suspected cases of plague or fever with no clear causes, and to report any sick or dead marmots.

The warning on Sunday (local time) follows four reported cases of plague in people from Inner Mongolia last November, including two of pneumonic plague, a deadlier variant of plague.

Plague cases are not uncommon in China but outbreaks have become increasingly rare.

From 2009 to 2018, China reported 26 cases and 11 deaths.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said more than 212,000 cases were reported globally on Saturday, the highest single-day increase since the start of the pandemic.

Outbreaks are surging in India, South Africa, Pakistan, Brazil and several other Latin American countries and, in a first, South Africa on Sunday reported more than 10,000 new confirmed cases in a single day.

The WHO said more than 60 per cent of the confirmed cases reports it received were in the Americas.

(NewDaily)