China city sealed off after bubonic death

China: City cordoned off after bubonic death

07/23/2014

A few days ago, a man died in Northwest China after an infection with bubonic plague. The authorities then cordoned off the small town of Yumen with 30,000 inhabitants and quarantined more than 150 residents.

Food in cordoned-off city last for a month
A small town in northwestern China has been completely sealed off after the death of a man at the bubonic plague. According to AFP news agency, Chinese state television reported Tuesday that 151 residents of the small town of Yumen were quarantined. In addition, all 30,000 residents were banned from leaving the city in Gansu province. Drivers were led by the police around the city. According to the broadcaster CCTV, the city has enough rice, flour and oil to feed the population for a month.

Maybe infected by a marmot
The 38-year-old victim reportedly had contact with a possibly infected groundhog, whose carcass the man then fed to his dog. He developed high fever the same day and died in a hospital last Wednesday. New cases have not yet occurred. The infectious disease is usually transmitted to humans by fleas that have become infected with the bacterium on infested rodents.

Highly contagious infectious disease
The bubonic plague is highly contagious and one of the four manifestations of infections with the bacterium Yersinia pestis. After an incubation period of a few hours to about one week, an infection initially causes flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache and body aches or inflammation of the lymph nodes in the groin area. The patients usually feel extremely weak and increasingly suffer from impaired consciousness. In the further course, clearly visible, painful bumps on the affected person's body are formed - usually in the armpit, groin or neck area, which go back to the infection of the lymph nodes and lymphatics.

If left untreated, plague will often kill
In late-stage bubonic plague it can also cause other manifestations of the plague, such as plague sepsis or pneumonic plague. These two types of plague have more symptoms. So, besides the high fever and the headache, the plague sepsis also causes chills or extensive bleeding of the skin and organs. Other symptoms of pulmonary plague include wheezing, coughing and a black-blooded sputum. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the pest dies untreated in 30 to 60 percent of all cases. However, according to experts, a large plague spread is unlikely today, since the pathogens could be well controlled with today's antibiotics. (Ad)