There is a wave of concern across the world ever since China’s northern region of Inner Mongolia reported two cases of bubonic plague. These cases are preceded by reports of a previous infection that was detected on August 7, which was confirmed by the local government of Inner Mongolia, a region of China.
As per reports, the first patient detected to have contracted the Plague was a woman and now it is her husband and her daughter who have been found to have been carrying the same strain, the government said in a statement on its website.
As a precautionary measure against the spread, all close contacts have been quarantined and have shown no abnormal symptoms, according to the statement.
Cases of bubonic plague infection, a highly infectious disease that is spread mostly by rodents, are low in China, with most found in Inner Mongolia and northwestern Ningxia region in recent years.
Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague, which can be fatal if not treated in time, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague and is caused by the bacteria Plague bacillus, Y. pestis which is transmitted from the bite of an infected flea. Plague bacillus, Y. pestis enters at the bite and travels through the lymphatic system to the nearest lymph node where it replicates itself. That means this bacterium attacks and makes a host of the same organ that is meant to raise the defences against any infections of the foreign body.
The lymph node under the attack of the Plague bacillus Y.pestis – then becomes inflamed, tense and painful, and is called a ‘bubo’. At advanced stages of the infection, the inflamed lymph nodes can turn into open sores filled with pus.
Human-to-human transmission of bubonic plague is rare. BUT Bubonic plague can advance and spread to the lungs, which is the more severe type of plague called pneumonic plague or lung-based plague.
WHO warns that when plague becomes pneumonic plague, which is the most virulent form of plague – the incubation can be as short as 24 hours. Any person with pneumonic plague may transmit the disease via droplets to other humans. Pneumonic plague can turn fatal if not given treatment quickly, and therefore must be detected and confirmed early so that the treatment begins quickly. However, recovery rates are high if detected and treated in time (within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms).
WHO on the current status of COVID-19
Meanwhile, the WHO has also alerted about the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic emergency may be over but the strains of COVID-19 still linger in various places of all countries across the world.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist who serves as the technical lead for the COVID-19 response at the World Health Organization, says that EG.5 is one of the sublineages of Omicron that is in circulation. In terms of its behaviour, it has an increased growth rate, as we expect all of these sublineages that are emerging. We don’t detect a change in the severity of EG.5 compared to other sublineages of Omicron that have been in circulation since late 2021.
“What is important is that today we will be classifying this as a variant of interest. It was a variant under monitoring. We need to ensure that sequencing continues. The virus is evolving. The virus is circulating in every country. And EG.5 is one of the latest variants of interest that we’re classifying.
“This will continue and this is what we have to prepare for. We need countries to continue sequencing and sharing with publicly available databases so that our Technical Advisory Group for Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) can monitor, can assess and can conduct these risk evaluations and publish them regularly.”
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