Dozens of people put into quarantine as Bubonic Plague confirmed in China

It comes after a 15-year-old boy who caught the disease after eating a marmot recovers in hospital, although his condition has improved – 34 others have been quarantined in Mongolia

34 people have been put into quarantine after another case of the Bubonic Plague was confirmed (Image: Getty Images/Science Photo Libra)

Dozens of people have been quarantined after the Bubonic Plague was confirmed in China.

Cases of the disease were reported in Bayan-Ulgii aimag, a province in Mongolia, with a 15-year-old boy infected after eating a marmot hunted by a dog.

He is understood to have a high fever.

But local health officials say the child's condition has improved, but 34 other people suspected of catching the Bubonic Plague have been quarantined.

D. Narangeral, head of ministry of health in Mongolia, said: "The child's condition has improved and there are reports that the fever has dropped and the pain in the axillary glands has decreased.

Marmots are a known carrier of the plague bacteria
(Image: Getty Images)

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"We also took full control of 34 suspects in the first contact. Samples from the child will be flown in at 22:00 tonight for testing at the NCCD.

"This is the second plague in our country. Cases of marmot plague have also been reported in Inner Mongolia, China. In this regard, Russia yesterday began to take measures to ban marmot hunting.

"While our neighbors are paying close attention, our citizens are being warned not to hunt and eat marmots illegally and to follow their advice."

Two people died from the plague in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of Bayannur last year after contracting the disease from eating the raw meat of a marmot – a type of rodent.

According to the World Health Organization, the Bubonic plague is spread by fleas living on wild rodents
(Image: Getty Images)

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A 27-year-old man and his brother, 17, are in hospital and described as “stable”. Pansoch Buyainbat and his brother are being treated in separate hospitals in Khovd province.

A city in China’s Inner Mongolia has also seen a confirmed case of the disease, a herdsman.

The Bayannur city health commission said he was in a stable condition.

A World Health Organization official in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, said consuming raw marmot meat and kidney is a folk remedy for good health.

Marmots are a known carrier of the plague bacteria.

A male doctor doing experiments in the laboratory
(Image: Getty Images)

Chinese city sounds alert after it records suspected case of bubonic plague

According to the World Health Organization, the Bubonic plague – a bacterial disease that is spread by fleas living on wild rodents – can kill an adult in under 24 hours.

On Saturday, China sounded an alert and in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of Bayannur with the area being placed on a third level alert.

The alert forbids the hunting and eating of animals that could carry plague and asks the public to report any suspected cases of plague or fever with no clear causes, and to report any sick or dead marmots.

The latest local health warning in the region of Bayannur will continue until the end of 2020.

"At present, there is a risk of a human plague epidemic spreading in this city," a statement from the local health authority read.

A flea in dog fur
(Image: Getty Images)

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"The public should improve its self-protection awareness and ability, and report abnormal health conditions promptly."

A couple died of bubonic plague in the western Mongolian province of Bayan-Ulgii after eating raw meat last year.

The news of Bubonic plague comes quickly after concerned Chinese researchers issued a warning over another potential pandemic caused by an influenza virus in pigs.

Experts say it has "all the hallmarks" of being highly adapted to infect humans and needs close monitoring.

The virus – which the researchers have named G4 EA H1N1 – can grow and multiply in human cells.