Why is the plague so frightening?
Published on December 17, 2024 11:05AM EDT By Nancy Miller

Inner Mongolia Autonomous region belongs to the natural focus of plague history, including Mongolian marmot, Daour squirrel, gerbils longclaw and Brinell voles, which are distributed in 57 counties with a total area of 337000 square kilometers. Although there are many types of foci and a wide area, there are very few cases of human plague under the efforts of health departments and disease prevention and control agencies at all levels over the years. The previous case of human plague occurred in 2004, 15 years ago.

According to a review by the World Health Organization in October 2017, the maximum incubation period of plague is seven days, and it is concluded that the possibility of continuing infection in close contacts in Beijing is very low, and the possibility of continuing infection in close contacts in Inner Mongolia is almost zero.

The plague is an old infectious disease caused by Yersinia pestis. The incubation period of the plague is generally 1 to 6 days, and the individual cases can be up to 8 to 9 days. After the infection of Yersinia pestis, the clinical manifestations include the types of the gland plague, the lung plague and the blood type plague. Plague of the gland is most common, usually manifested as fever and local lymph node enlargement, the cure rate is high. The lung plague is often characterized by high fever, cough, chest distress, dyspnea, and hemoptysis. The symptoms of the blood type plague are also serious and the prognosis is poor. The plague is mainly transmitted through vector-borne organisms, contact propagation, and frothing. in In natural foci, vector transmission is the most important mode of transmission, fleas are the main vector of plague transmission, fleas parasitic in infected animals infected with Yersinia pestis and then bite people, can cause human infection. Contact transmission refers to the infection caused by human contact with infected animals or the excreta of plague patients when slaughtering, peeling and eating meat, and when the pathogen enters the body through the wound or mucous membrane on the surface of the skin.

Good personal hygiene practices are the most effective measures for the prevention of various infectious diseases, including plague protection. For the current situation, the public is not required to take special personal protective measures, and should maintain good personal hygiene practices, such as hand washing, try to avoid the crowded places of the crowd, and wear a mask and the like in time when the related symptoms such as fever, cough and the like occur to the medical institution or the individual. If you suspect that you have any contact with the case, you can make a self-observation, or make an active declaration to the local disease control department for professional guidance. In case of fever, cough and other symptoms, see the doctor in time. To minimize and make contact with wild animals while traveling, not to make a health-like Otter with unknown condition, do well to prevent the biting of the fleas, reduce the body exposure by using the repellent, avoid being bitten by the fleas, hunt and eat wild animals without permission.

On the evening of November 14, the network transmitted the suspected case of plague in the Beijing Xuanwu Hospital and the Beijing Children's Hospital, and the experts of the Beijing Organizing Committee made a comprehensive judgment on two visiting patients from the city of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, and combined with the history of the patient's epidemiology, the clinical manifestation and the pathogenic examination. The patient did not meet the diagnostic criteria of the plague, and the plague was eliminated and the isolation and observation were released. Before that, on November 12, the Health and Health Committee of the Xilingol League of Inner Mongolia and the Health and Health Committee of Chaoyang District, Beijing, jointly issued the news, the Beijing Hospital of Health and Health confirmed two cases of lung plague from the visit to Beijing from Inner Mongolia. On November 15, the Beijing Health and Health Committee reported that The two confirmed patients, one with stable condition, and another with expert consultation, the condition was still critical and slightly improved.

According to the diagnosis and treatment plan, the treatment of plague is still the first choice for streptomycin (SM), combined with other types of antibiotics, and emphasizes the application strategy of early, sufficient and total control. The antibiotic is a direct contact with a plague patient, or may have a preventive treatment effect.

On November 13, the epidemic situation of the plague in China, which was issued by the Chinese CDC, showed that the plague in China was very serious before the founding of the new China. After the establishment of the new China, the government of our country attaches great importance to the prevention and control of the plague, the number of the incidence of the disease is obviously reduced, the average annual report of the first century about 20 cases, the 90 's, the plague in the south of our country has experienced a brief increase, since 2010 only a sporadic case report has been reported, It is mainly concentrated in the northwest part of China. Between 2009 and September 2019, a total of 27 plague cases and 12 deaths were found throughout the country. Of which, the incidence of the disease in 2009 There were the largest number of plague patients, with a total of 12 cases, of which 3 died. In September this year, one case of plague occurred and one case died in Gansu Province. According to the official website of Gansu Provincial Health and Health Commission, on September 27, a suspected plague case was reported in Aksai County, Jiuquan City, Gansu Province. It was confirmed as septic plague on the 29th. Jiuquan City immediately started the third-level emergency response of the plague control plan, the epidemic situation was put out in time, and the third-level emergency response of the plague control plan was terminated on October 6. According to statistics, from 1958 to 2018, 32 cases of human plague occurred in Gansu Province, 71 cases occurred, 44 cases died, more than 80% of the human plague was directly exposed to marmot infection.

(Picture Source:Sogou)

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