2 cases of pneumonic plague reported in Beijing

Two people from north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have been diagnosed with pneumonic plague in Beijing, said the government website of Beijing's Chaoyang District on Tuesday.

The patients were properly treated in Chaoyang District and relevant prevention and control measures have been implemented, said the website.

What is pneumonic plague?

Pneumonic plague is categorized as a Class-A infectious disease by the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases.

Caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, the disease is rapid in onset, short in duration, high in mortality, strong in infectivity and rapid in spread. In particular, septicemic and pneumonic plagues, if untreated, have a case fatality rate of anywhere between 30 to 100 percent. The disease usually has a relatively short incubation period, normally one to six days. But it can have longer ones in some cases, about eight to nine days.

It is usually prevalent among rodents and can occasionally cause human epidemics.

Beijing is not a natural epidemic focus of the disease but still has a risk of importation and transmission.

How does it spread?

Infected animals and patients with pneumonic plague are the source of infection. Rodents like marmots, rats and mice are common host animals.

Fleas bite infected mice and then humans, or humans hunt, skin, or eat infected marmots or other animals, which often causes bubonic plague or septicemic plague. People who are in contact with patients will become infected by respiratory inhalation, which often causes pneumonic plague.

Patients with pneumonic plague will suffer high fever, chills, headache and chest pain, shortness of breath, purplish lips, cough with mucus or bloody phlegm. Heart failure, bleeding, and shock are the main causes to death.

Prompt antibiotic treatment can reduce the mortality of plague. Daily precautions include reducing the chance of being bitten by an infected flea or minimizing exposure to pneumonic plague patients.