A hunter in China was diagnosed with bubonic plague last Saturday. This resulted to immediately quarantine twenty-eight people in the province of Inner Mongolia sated by its local health commission.
The unknown patient was assumed to be infected with plague after eating the rabbit he caught in Inner Mongolia's Huade province.
Bubonic plague is a more common kind of disease and is rarely transferred to humans.
The issue was made known to the public after the Chinese government announced on November 12 that two people were being cured for the pneumonic plague in the capital of Beijing. The same plague can cause the Black Death or more popular as one of the deadliest epidemics in human history.
Pneumonic plague is the most contagious and lethal strain of the infection. It starts in the lungs and any person who is infected can extend it to another person just by sneezing or coughing near them. It can be treated buy taking antibiotics, but is always fatal if left untreated. Treatment should be given proper attention as the plague can withstand the plague in some cases.
In comparison, bubonic plague can affect people by means of contact with infected fleas or by handling an infected animal's tissue.
Good thing is that there had been no evidence of the plague scattering further in Beijing and there was no update with regards to recent case. However, it was the second time the disease had been detected in the region in the past year.
Same case of death because of bubonic plague happened last May when a couple died after eating infected raw kidney of a marmot. It is a local folk health remedy in the region.
Bubonic plague and Black Death pandemic are linked to the 14th century that took the lives of around 50 million people in Europe, it remains a relatively common disease.
Now, at least 1,000 people a year catch the plague as stated by the World Health Organization (WHO). This is the modest estimate they can give considering the ureported cases.
The three most widespread countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru.
An average of seven Americans gets the plague every year based on the records of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2015, two people in Colorado died from the said plague, and in 2014 there are eight reported cases of the disease.
Bubonic plague is caused by one to seven days of direct exposure to the bacteria. After that flu-like symptoms occur. Headaches, fever, and vomiting will be experienced. Swollen and pulsing lymph nodes occur in the affected area where the plague entered the skin. Sometime the swollen nodes may burst open.
If symptoms exist in your body and you suspect it is a bubonic plague, you need to immediately seek the help of the nearest health care for prevention. Vaccines is not proven effective to prevent the plague from destroying the body, instead, several antibiotics like streptomycin, doxycycline, and gentamicin are used.