A three-year-old boy in the Menghai county, located in the Yunnan Province of China was diagnosed with a suspected case of bubonic plague, the local authorities confirmed on Friday. A level-IV emergency response had got launched for preventing the spread of the plague.
The boy had a mild infection, but is currently stable after getting treatment, an official stated adding that the child is the only reported case as per the latest updates, according to Global Times. The case was discovered during the nationwide screening for the disease after three rats were discovered dead for an unknown reason in a village. The local disease control authorities stated tat a rat plague took place in Xiding, Menghai.
Plague Case in China
The official told Global Times that a plague emergency response all over the nation started as soon as the case was discovered. Experts have been sent to Menghai for supporting the village's plague control. The local authority has set up a team for carrying out inspection, diagnosis, and quarantine for the localities. The team asked the residents to report if they had contact with dead rats.
The cases of plague have sparked concerns, as it was also confirmed in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in August, where two people died. Wang Peiyu, who is a deputy head of Peking University's School of Public Health, said that the plague is not probably going to spread in Yunnan, but the people need to be alert. "Infected rats are a key source of the disease, which also transmits to humans through bites from infected fleas," Wang told Global Times.
The bubonic plague takes place mostly in rural areas, mountains, grasslands, and the places where people are in frequent contact with rats. It is, however, nothing new in Yunnan, as cases also showed up over the years, the expert said. But with the coronavirus spreading at a rapid rate it is going to be a concern for people if the plague outbreak starts.
