Main image via Bloomberg , The Jerusalem Post
While the world is still fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, a disease that caused the Black Death pandemic has been reported in Inner Mongolia.
China issued a level-three alert (the second-lowest in the four-level system) after a suspected case of bubonic plague was reported in Bayan Nur, a city in the Inner Mongolia region.
The warning will last until the end of the year and Bayannur health authorities have urged citizens to take precautions to minimise the risk of human-to-human transmission.
The authorities also warned the public to report findings of dead or sick marmots, suspected plague cases, and avoid hunting or eating animals that could cause infection.
"At present, there is a risk of a human plague epidemic spreading in this city. The public should improve its self-protection awareness and ability, and report abnormal health conditions promptly," said local health authority.
Two bubonic plague cases were also recently confirmed in Mongolia after two brothers both ate marmot meat.
Russian officials are also patrolling around the borders of the Altai region to ban people from hunting marmots to avoid the spread of the plague that’s highly infectious.
The disease, also known as the “Black Death” is caused by Yersinia Pestis, a bacteria that can be found in small mammals and their fleas, which killed half of Europe’s population and recorded an estimate of 75 to 200 million deaths worldwide in the 1300s.
And while the plague is serious and can be fatal, it’s largely treatable with the availability of antibiotics now, with 584 deaths reported from 2010 to 2015 from the rare disease.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 1,000 to 2,000 people get the plague every year and it’s an endemic in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru.
Is there a possibility of the Black Death pandemic returning? It’s not likely, but the plague disease should still be taken seriously because it’s still dangerous if not treated in time.
Do you know the history of the Black Death pandemic? Let us know!
Info via South China Morning Post
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