China's government has called on the population to take precautions to protect themselves from the lung plague. In Beijing, the plague was diagnosed in two patients. You are in quarantine.
According to the Chinese health authority, the two patients were infected in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in northern China, and admitted to a hospital in Beijing for treatment. The condition of one of the patients is "critical", but has not deteriorated, according to the newspaper "China Daily". The other patient is therefore stable.
The Chinese authorities warned against panic: The risk that the lung plague now spread, was minimal, they said. So far, no signs have been discovered that infected people who had contact with the infected. Furthermore, the authorities are in the process of locating persons who might have previously had contact with the patients. The hospitals were sensitized to look for similar symptoms.
The plague is considered one of the most frightening epidemics in human history. To date, there are cases in different parts of the world, in 2017 many people died in Madagascar. In 2015, two people in the Yosemite National Park became infected with the plague.
If left untreated, lung plague always leads to death
Especially in the Middle Ages, two major epidemics swept away large parts of the European population. Millions of people died of bubonic plague, the Black Death. Since the end of the 20th century, however, Europe is considered free of pests.
The pathogen - the bacterium Yersinia pestis - is often transmitted by fleas, mostly in rural areas. The bloodsuckers pass the bacteria from infected rats to humans.
The pneumonic plague can also be transmitted via the air from person to person. Symptoms include coughing and bloody sputum. Left untreated, pulmonary plague, according to the World Health Organization, always leads to death.
The number of rodents in Inner Mongolia has risen massively in recent years. A Dutch-sized region was plagued by a rat plague that cost millions of euros in damages.
