Plague in China

Recently, another cluster of marmot plague has been ident8fied in mainland Asia, this time, in the region of Outer Mongolia in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Reports of this Chinese outbreak came in a few days after two cases was identified in the western region of their northern neighbour, Mongolia.

According to Chinese medical authorities, the first positively identified case of plague in mainland China was a local farmer (from Outer Mongolia) who reportedly consumed the meat of an infected wild marmot. It should be noted that this novel pathogen (the one behind the recent cases of plague) is genetically similar to the bacteria (and equally contagious) behind the infamous pandemic know as the Black Death (this historic infection was transmitted via rats).

As of the time of writing, there’s insufficient information to predict the future outcome of these plague outbreaks.