New Disease in China: How Does Bubonic Plague Spread? What are the Symptoms? All You Need to Know!

The city of Mongolia in China was under alert after authorities issued warning a day after a hospital reported suspected case of bubonic plague. Following the warning four more people reported cases including cases for pneumonic plague. 

The bubonic plague is commonly known as the “Black Death”. It is highly infectious and also fatal. It is mostly spread by rodents.

What is a plague?

Plague is an infectious disease caused by zoonotic bacteria. It is spotted in small mammals and fleas. When people are bitten by infected fleas, they develop bubonic form of plague. Sometimes bubonic plague might turn into a pneumonic plague (the more dangerous one) when the bacteria reaches the lungs. 

What is the bubonic plague?

Bubonic Plague is the most common form of disease caused by the bite of an infected flea. Once the flea bites, the bacteria enter and travels through the lymphatic system, reaches the nearest lymph node in our body and replicates itself. When this happens, lymph nodes become inflamed, tense and painful and is called as ‘bubo’

Human to human transmission of the plague is rare.

What’s the difference between bubonic and pneumonic plagues?

Bubonic plague is the most common form but  it cannot be spread from one person to another. Some people with bubonic plague will develop pneumonic plague.

Pneumonic plague, or lung-based plague, is the harmful form of plague and has an incubation period as short as 24 hours. A person with pneumonic plague may spread the disease to others through coughing via droplets.

Bubonic plague has a mortality rate of 30% to 60%. However, both types have good recovery rates if people are treated in time.

Pneumonic plague, if not diagnosed and treated early, can be fatal. 

How are people infected by the disease?

According to World Health Organization (WHO), “Humans can be infected through the bite of infected fleas, unprotected contact with infectious bodily fluids or contaminated materials to the inhalation of respiratory droplets/small particles from a patient with pneumonic plague.”

Can there be human to human transmission?

Person-to-person transmission is possible through the inhalation of infected respiratory droplets of a person who has the pneumonic plague (however ones who have bubonic plague can’t transmit). 

Common antibiotics are widely used to cure plague.

What are the symptoms?

People infected with plague usually experience symptoms such as udden onset of fever, chills, head and body aches, weakness, vomiting and nausea. Painful and inflamed lymph nodes can also appear during the bubonic plague.

Symptoms of the pneumonic form appear quickly after infection, sometimes less than 24 hours. It includes severe respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath and coughing.

How is it treated?

Plague is usually treated with antibiotics. The recovery is quick if treatment is started within the early days. In areas where there is an outbreak of the plague, people with symptoms should get themselves evaluated by medical professionals and seek treatment if necessary. 

In the case of pneumonic plague, the patient will be isolated and treated by medical staff who’d be wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). 

Can dead bodies spread plague?

“The body of someone who has died after being infected with plague can infect people who are in close contact, such as those who are preparing the body for burial. The source of infection is the bacteria that are still present in body fluids,” Hindustan Times cited in its report.

When has it happened in the past?

The last time. Bubonic plague happened in the middle ages and it killed millions of people and wiped out around a third of Europe’s population in 1300s. 

The bacterium is initially believed to have been originated from Yunnan in China. 

There were 3,248 cases worldwide, leading to 584 deaths—a fatality rate of 18%— between 2010 and 2015 according to WHO.