A suspected bubonic plague case was reported on Saturday by a hospital in Bayannur, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. After the case is reported, the local health authority announced that the warning period will continue until the end of 2020.
In view of the global outrage against China in giving information regarding the novel coronavirus outbreak, a team of WHO (World Health Organisation) is expected to visit the country to investigate the origins of the virus and its spread to human beings.
What is Bubonic plague?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), bubonic plague is a bacterial disease that is spread by fleas living on wild rodents such as marmots. It can kill an adult in less than 24 hours if not treated in time.
There are two main forms of the plague: bubonic and pneumonic (when plague advances to the lungs). However, bubonic plague is the most common form and is characterised by painful swollen lymph nodes or 'buboes'. It is a rare disease now—from 2010 to 2015, there were 3,248 cases reported worldwide, including 584 deaths. It is now prevalent in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru.
Why it is also known as black death?
In ancient times a bubonic plague pandemic, also known as the 'black death', had wiped out more than half of Europe's population. The disease in the 14th Century is known as one of the worst pandemics in human history that claimed millions of lives. It is expected to have originated somewhere in Asia, spreading through China and India, before killing of an estimated two-thirds of the European population in the 1340s and 1350s.
With the help of antibiotics, the disease can be cured now, but the airborne spread is highly contagious which has put the world in tizzy leaving people dead overnight when sailors started arriving at ports either dead or rotting, or covered in black contusions, pus and blood. It is believed to have been brought under control by strict quarantine measures and public hygiene enactments.
What are its symptoms?
As per the WHO, sudden onset of fever, chills, head and body aches, and weakness, vomiting, and nausea are some of the symptoms. In bubonic plague, the lymph node becomes inflamed, tense and painful (almost the size of a chicken's egg), called a ‘bubo’. At advanced stages of the infection, the inflamed lymph nodes can turn into open sores filled with pus. When it reaches to the lungs, pneumonic plague becomes the most virulent form of plague.
How fatal is Bubonic Plague
Although human-to-human transmission of bubonic plague is rare, any person with pneumonic plague may transmit the disease through droplets to other humans.
The disease is mostly treatable with the help of antibiotics, but if not treated on time, bubonic plague has a case-fatality ratio of 30 per cent to 60 cent, while it's septicaemic (circulation in bloodstream) and pneumonic kind can touch 100 per cent fatality. If diagnosed and treated on time, the disease has about a 10 per cent fatality rate.