Two pneumonic plague cases unsettle China

China’s government has called on the population to take precautions to protect against the pneumonic plague. In Beijing had been diagnosed in two patients the plague. They are in quarantine.

The two Patients had been infected, the Chinese health authority and that in Inner Mongolia, an Autonomous Region in Northern China, and were for treatment in a hospital in Beijing hospitalized. The condition of the patients was “critical”, but have not deteriorated, i.e., according to the newspaper “China Daily”. The other Patient, therefore, is stable.

The Chinese authorities warned against panic: The risk that the pneumonic plague spread well, be minimal, it said. So far, no signs had been discovered that people with the Infected contact, infected. Furthermore, the authorities were in the process of finding people that might have possibly had contact with the patient. The hospitals had been sensitized to look for similar symptoms on the lookout.

The plague is considered to be one of the most fearsome diseases in the history of mankind. To date, there are always cases in different regions of the world, 2017, for example, a lot of people died in Madagascar. 2015 infected two people in Yosemite national Park with the Pest.

Pneumonic plague untreated, leads always to death

Especially in the middle ages, two severe epidemics of rafting large sections of the European population. Millions of people died of the bubonic plague, the Black death. Since the end of the 20th century. Century, Europe is free, however as a plague.

The causative agent – the bacterium Yersinia pestis – is often transferred from fleas, mostly in rural areas. The blood-sucker to pass the bacteria from infected rats to humans.

The pneumonic plague can be transmitted also through the air from person to person. Symptoms including a cough and bloody sputum are. If left untreated, the pneumonic plague, the world health organization, according to always to the death.

The number of rodents in Inner Mongolia has increased massively in recent years. A Region of the size of the Netherlands has been struck by a rat plague, which caused a damage of several million euros.