Pneumonic plague outbreak kills three in northwestern China
China, Aug 07, 2009
Health officials in northwestern China continue to maintain a quarantine lockdown on a town of 10,000 people due to a pneumonic plague outbreak that has already killed three people, state media reported on Tuesday (Aug 4). The third victim was a 64-year-old man who died on Monday (Aug 3) in Ziketan, a remote town in a Tibetan area of Qinghai province, where the first two plague fatalities reportedly occurred, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP). The BBC noted that the man was a neighbor of the first two victims and that about 10 other people inside the town have been infected with the deadly disease, most of which are relatives of the first victim, a 32 year-old herdsman, the AFP reported. The second victim, a 37 year-old man, died on Sunday (Aug 2) and was the neighbor of the first victim. Health authorities have sealed off Ziketan to prevent the plague from spreading, established checkpoints around the town and have sent medics to disinfect the area, killing rats and insects. Authorities have also urged people who had visited the town on or after July 16 to seek immediate medical attention if a cough or fever had developed. World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman Vivian Tan said the outbreak was of concern, but gave credit to Chinese health authorities for reacting quickly and taking the right measures to control the situation. Tan told the AFP that the bacterium responsible for the plague is endemic in some rodents in the region. She was quoted as saying, "If the fleas from those animals do bite human beings they could lead to bubonic plague, which is more common, and if that is left untreated it could sometimes lead to pneumonic plague which we're seeing in Qinghai at the moment." According to Professor Wang Hu, director of the Qinghai disease control bureau, initial tests have shown that the first victim's dead dog was the likely source of the outbreak, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Thursday (Aug 6). Wang speculated that the dog died after eating a plague-infected marmot, and that the 32 year-old contracted the disease when he was bitten by fleas while burying the dead dog. He died three days after burying his pet. The WHO reports that pneumonic plague is the most virulent, but least common form of the plague. It also is more contagious since it spreads through the air, unlike the bubonic plague which requires that a person be bitten by an infected flea. Pneumonic plague, which produces symptoms of fever, headache and shortness of breath, is caused by the same bacteria as the bubonic plague and can kill a person 24 hours after infection.
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