A teenager died of bubonic plague in Mongolia after hunting and eating a groundhog, health officials in the country who recently recorded a series of cases of the disease said on Tuesday, as did neighboring China.
The 15-year-old boy, whose infection was reported from July 6, lived in the remote province of Gobi-Altai in the southwest, where five districts were later isolated from the rest of Mongolian territory for six days. .
Fifteen people in quarantine
"We quarantined the first 15 people who came into contact with the deceased and these 15 people are administered treatment with antibiotics," explained to the press Narangerel Dorj, who heads the department of public relations of the Ministry of Health.
Two other cases of bubonic plague, involving brothers who had also eat marmot meat, were confirmed at the beginning of the month in Khovd province, neighboring that of Gobi Altaï and located in the extreme west of Mongolia, a country whose borders remain closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Regular cases in Mongolia
Over 140 people were tested in this region as a result, but none had contracted the disease. At least one person dies each year from bubonic plague in Mongolia, where campaigns are orchestrated to dissuade people from approaching or eating groundhogs.
In northern China, the authorities of the city of Bayannur, located in Inner Mongolia, discovered about ten days ago that a shepherd suffered from this disease.
WHO: the situation is "well managed" in China
The World Health Organization (WHO), accused notably by Trump of having delayed reacting to the coronavirus, declared to follow closely the cases of bubonic plague in China, ensuring that there was no high threat in this area and that the situation was "well managed".
In this context, in Russia, the health services announced last week that they had started a campaign to detect this disease among rodents in Buryatia, a region bordering Mongolia.
The Russian authorities have at the same time called for no more hunting and eating marmots.