Is The Bubonic Plague Cases In China A Matter Of Panic?

After cases of Bubonic Plague emerged in China’s Inner Mongolia, there are fears that it might turn into another pandemic. Here's why the risks this time is low.

New Delhi: Ever since the cases of Bubonic Plague in China’s Inner Mongolia has come to light, people are wondering if this going to another pandemic which will join in with the current Coronavirus outbreak. While, Chinese authorities have issued an alert, which they say will continue until the end of the year WHO says it does not see it as a matter of high risk. 

Unlike in the Middle Ages, the Bubonic Plague is now treatable. The Bubonic plague is one of three plagues caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis which come fleas that infest on rodents, vaccines have not been effective for plague, but treatments have been working effectively. But despite this, even today plague is highly infectious and dangerous if it remains untreated.

Throughout the years, several outbreaks around the globe. In India, one such outbreak of bubonic and pneumonic plague happened in the south-central and western India from 26 August to 18 October 1994.

There was confusion and misinformation around this disease, which led people to flee Surat which was one of the worst-hit by the disease. As a result, tourism stopped, and economic growth took a hit.

While there have been serval outbreaks in different countries, a full-blown plague pandemic hasn’t happened since the 1960s (which was when the third plague pandemic which started in 1855 is officially recorded to have ended by the WHO). And with the discovery of antibiotics in the 1940s, the death rate dropped dramatically.



Regarding the current outbreak, World Health Organization spokesperson Margaret Harris told a U.N. press briefing in Geneva “We are monitoring the outbreaks in China, we are watching that closely and in partnership with the Chinese authorities and Mongolian authorities,” according to a Reuters report.

She added, “At the moment we are not...considering it high-risk but we are watching it, monitoring it carefully.” Even cases in China although are not unusual but they becoming increasingly rare.