#WHO says bubonic plague case in China is ‘well-managed’

The World Health Organization is monitoring a case of bubonic plague in China but said it’s not “high risk” for now, according to news reports.

The alert comes after a hospital in Bayannur, a city northwest of Beijing, notified local government officials Saturday that there was a suspected case of the plague, prompting authorities to issue a citywide Level 3 warning on Sunday, the Xinhua news agency reported.

On Tuesday, doctors confirmed the diagnosis.

“The commission urged the public to beef up self-protection as the city has the risk of people-to-people infections and not to hang and eat animals that could cause plague infections,” the agency said. “The agency also called the public to report any findings of illed or dead marmots and other animals, and report suspected plague cases.”

Marmots, which are eaten in parts of China and Mongolia, are large ground squirrels that have caused plague outbreaks in the region, CNN said. The animals were believed to have caused the 1911 pneumonic plague epidemic that killed about 63,000 people in northeast China.

Last week, two brothers in Mongolia were hospitalized with suspected bubonic plague cases after eating marmot meat, Xinhua reported.

But WHO officials said the current case is being “well-managed,” and not a high risk at the moment.

“Bubonic plague has been with us and is always with us, for centuries,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said at a briefing, the Irish news site, the Journal.ie, reported Tuesday.

“We are looking at the case numbers in China,” Harris said. “It’s being well-managed. At the moment, we are not considering it high-risk but we’re watching it, monitoring it carefully.”

Bubonic plague, caused by bacteria transmitted through infected animals, killed an estimated 50 million people in Europe during the Black Plague pandemic in the Middle Ages. However, the advent of antibiotics allows the plague to be treated today if caught in time.