Inner Mongolia plague Photo:Xinhua

 

Southwest China's Yunnan Province on Sunday confirmed a previously suspected case of bubonic plague. No new cases have been reported.

The suspected bubonic plague case, involving a 3-year-old child in Menghai county, Yunnan, that was first reported on Thursday was diagnosed as a confirmed case on Sunday evening, Shanghai-based news website thepaper.cn reported on Monday, citing the Yunnan Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

As the suspected patient had taken antibiotics for treatment, plague bacilli were not immediately found in sample tests. But when the antibodies related to the plague multiplied in lab test samples, the case was eventually confirmed, Song Zhizhong, the director of the Yunnan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted in the report as saying.

Yunnan has reported cases of bubonic place before, and the probability of human-to-human transmission is minimal, Song said, noting that no new suspected cases have been found in the latest investigations in nearby villages.

The local government launched a level-IV emergency response to prevent the spread of the plague soon after the case was identified.

The case was discovered during a countywide screening for the disease, after three rats were found dead for unknown reasons in a village. Local disease control authorities initially concluded on September 21 that a rat plague had occurred in Xiding, Menghai.

Global Times