Officials have blocked off a city in northern China and placed 151
people in quarantine after a man died of bubonic plague last week, Agence
France Presse reports.
The 38-year-old victim in the city of Yumen was
infected after feeding his dog a dead marmot, a large squirrel-like creature,
earlier this month. He developed a fever later that same day and died last
Wednesday.
Officials are now barricading the city of 30,000,
blocking motorists from entering or leaving. State broadcaster China Central
Television (CCTV) reported "local residents and those in quarantine are
all in stable conditon," and that the city has enough food and provisions
for residents to survive for up to one month.
China's law on Prevention and Treatment of Infectious
Diseases labels the plague as a Class A infectious disease, the most serious
category. Under this law, those at risk for infection are required to be
"isolated for treatment" for a time determined by government health
officials. According to Reuters, the city is prepared to put 1 million yuan, or
$161,200, into emergency vaccinations.
Bubonic plague is a deadly disease that is spread
primarily through flea bites, and without treatment, it can lead to death in as
little as 24 hours. Before the age of antibiotics, it killed 66% of those
infected, but with treatment, the mortality rate is now 8-10%, according to the
CDC.
In the 1300s, the worst epidemic of the plague killed
an estimated 30 to 60% of Europe's population. According to World Health
Organization reports, there are 1,000 to 3,000 cases of the plague around the
world each year, and there have been several small, isolated outbreaks in rural
China in recent years.
The Beijing Center for Disease Control announced on
its website that there is little chance the plague will spread to the capital,
Reuters reported. As of Tuesday, there have been no new infections.
Kari Paul
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