Bubonic plague in China: Here's all you need to know about infamous 'Black Death'

Chinese health officials have sounded an alarm over the reports of bubonic plague in China’s Inner Mongolia as the world suffers from coronavirus pandemic. On July 1, state-run Xinhua news agency reported two confirmed cases of bubonic plague in Khovd province in western Mongolia after lab results confirmed the same.

A 27-year-old resident and his 17-year-old brother were diagnosed with bubonic plague after they ate marmot meat, the health officials reportedly said, warning people not to eat marmot meat. Bubonic plague is a bacterial disease transmitted to animals and humans by infected fleas from rodents.

Symptoms

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), bubonic plague, infamously known as the Black Death, usually results from the bite of infected fleas, leading to the development of Lymphadenitis in the drainage lymph nodes. Patients suffering from bubonic plague develop sudden onset of fever, headache, chills, and weakness and one or more swollen, tender and painful lymph nodes (called buboes). 

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that the bacteria can spread to other parts of the body if the patient is not treated with appropriate antibiotics. Fleas get infected by feeding on rodents infected with the bacterium Yersinia pestis and transmit the plague bacteria to humans and other mammals during a subsequent feeding.

Human-to-human transmission?

While a human-to-human transmission is not possible in bubonic plague, pneumonic plague requires direct and close contact for transmission. The incubation period for bubonic plague is 2-6 days after being infected and if the disease left untreated, plague bacteria can invade the bloodstream where they rapidly multiply and spread throughout the body and cause a severe and often fatal condition called septicemic plague.

“Untreated bubonic plague can also progress into an infection of the lungs, causing pneumonic plague. If plague patients are not given specific antibiotic therapy, all forms of plague can progress rapidly to death,” says CDC.

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