Local authorities confirmed on Tuesday that two people in China are receiving treatments for pneumonic plague, the same strain that resulted in the Black Death plague.
Xinhua first reported on the situation, as revealed by Beijing's Chaoyang District government website. The two patients hailed from north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The government site said the patients the relevant medical institution in the district have already performed control measures as well as disease prevention procedures to ensure that it will not spread further in the region.
The most devastating plague outbreaks that took place in history were those in Europe during the Middle Ages. At that time, around 50 million people were killed by the disease because antibiotics were not yet available then, CNN reported.
While bubonic plague enters and infects the bloodstream, pneumonic plague attacks the lungs. Not much is known about how the Chinese patients contracted the same strain that caused millions of deaths in the past. On the other hand, it is expected that more details will be revealed about the patients' recovery in the coming weeks.
While no vaccine has been developed to effectively block the plague, antibiotics have helped in preventing complications as long as the medications are given to a patient soon enough.
Researchers are reportedly working on various approaches regarding the potential development of an effective vaccine that will, instead of preventing complications, block the virus from entering the body.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that if pneumonic plague and other plagues are left untreated, they can be very contagious and spread around faster than expected.
The organization further explained that despite the deadliness of the Black Death plague, recovery rates are high, given that the disease is detected as early as possible and treated promptly.
Usually, the incubation period goes for up to six days, but in other cases recorded in the past, incubation took nine days. After the incubation period, an infected patient will experience vomiting, nausea, body pains, and headaches, chills, and fever.
According to the Express, there have been 3,248 cases of the plague from 2010 to 2015. In those cases, 584 people died. It remains to be seen how many cases were recorded from 2016 to the present.
As of Monday night, the Chaoyang District Hospital has set up a police blockade around the area, people in the neighborhood told Caixin Global. The emergency room is also being cleaned up, with all chairs in the said room removed.
The Chaoyang hospital also told local media that the infected patients have been transferred to a different hospital although no details have been revealed about the said hospital or where exactly it is located.
