Mongolia has enacted a bubonic plague health alert in the Uliasta district in Zavkhán province. For this, an indefinite quarantine has been decreed until the investigations are finished.
This was carried out after a resident presented fever, headache and muscle pain a week after eating groundhog meat, an animal that is well known for being host to the Yersina Pestis bacteria, the same that causes the infection.
This locality would count as the third after similar cases were reported in others in the same country. The first was held in early July. This occurred in the city of Khovd, which reported two known cases.
A week later a case was registered in Bayannur in the interior of the country. China subsequently decreed the alert when a case was reported. In total, there have been 7 confirmed cases of black plague that, according to research, if not treated in time can kill a person in 24 hours.
In the history
This plague was greatly feared in the 14th century, leaving a balance of 50 million people dead in Europe alone. The outbreak emerged in Asia and spread throughout the world. The infection is spread through the bite of a flea, Xenopsylla cheopis, from a rodent. This consists of infection of the lymph nodes located mainly in the groins, armpits and neck.
Among the most characteristic symptoms are a kind of flu, malaise, fever, swollen lymph nodes, muscle cramps, gangrene, suffocation and vomiting. The disease could also be transmitted through the respiratory system and is known as pneumonic plague. It is known by the name of black plague due to gangrenous skin that is generated at an advanced stage.