Mongolia panics over PLAGUE outbreak as region next to Chinese border is quarantined
MONGOLIA has quarantined a region next to the Chinese border following two suspected cases of the plague.
By Rachel Russell
PUBLISHED: 03:01, Sat, Jul 4, 2020 | UPDATED: 06:28, Sat, Jul 4, 2020
According to local media, the area in western Mongolia is now in quarantine.

Vehicles have also been banned from entering the area until further notice.

At least 504 second-contact people were identified in the testing.

Local reports suggested that the victims include a 27-year-old male and a young woman.

A suspected case of bubonic plague has been registered in China’s north, according to local health authorities. The news comes after two similar cases were detected in neighboring Mongolia.

The case was registered at a hospital in China’s Inner Mongolia region, its health commission said in a statement on Sunday.

This prompted a third-level warning of a potential epidemic in the region. The alert comes into force immediately and will be in place until the end of this year. It’s believed the patient in question is suffering from the bubonic form, which causes swollen lymph nodes, and is considered to be the most easily treated variant of the disease.

Just when you thought this year couldn’t get any worse, there’s more bad news. Mongolia has quarantined an entire region after identifying two people with symptoms of bubonic plague – only 300km from the frontier with Russia.

According to local reports, a man and a woman from Mongolia’s western Khovd region are thought to have contracted the disease after eating raw marmot meat. Before the pair were hospitalized, at least 146 people had come into direct contact with them, and 504 had been indirectly exposed.

Although Khovd is not directly adjacent to Russia, the border is just a five-hour drive away. However, experts think the disease poses no threat to the world’s biggest country.

That’s 2020 for you: Twitter goes NUTS after squirrel tests positive for BUBONIC PLAGUE in Colorado (1)

An unlucky squirrel from Colorado has tested positive for bubonic plague, local health officials have said. With US Covid-19 cases soaring past the 3.3 million mark, news on the classic disease’s comeback have caused quite a stir.

The discovery of the infected rodent was announced by the Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) body. The squirrel is the first case of plague in the county this year, the authority noted.

“Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, and can be contracted by humans and household animals if proper precautions are not taken,” the JCPH warned.

The dreaded disease, which decimated the world’s population at least three times during massive pandemics over the course of history, is extremely rare nowadays. Between 1,000 and 2,000 cases of the plague are still registered worldwide each year, coming primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

California confirms 1st case of PLAGUE in 5 years, health officials urge residents to take precautions

The uncommon but potentially lethal bacterial disease is usually transmitted by fleas found on infected squirrels and other rodents in the wild. Plague can be treated with antibiotics if detected at an early stage.

The state has gone for several years without a confirmed case of plague. The last instance, in 2015, involved two people who contracted the disease at Yosemite National Park. Both individuals made a full recovery.