SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China reported a third case of bubonic plague on Sunday after two other plague cases were revealed last week, but the disease remains rare despite its fearsome reputation and authorities say the cases appear unrelated.
HOW DOES INFECTION OCCUR?
Two patients from Inner Mongolia were quarantined in Beijing suffering from pneumonic plague, authorities said last week. A 55-year old man from the same region was later diagnosed with bubonic plague after eating wild rabbit meat, the health commission said.
Both types of plague are caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium.
Bites from infected fleas are the most common cause of bubonic plague infection, but the pneumonic variant – where the bacterium is breathed into the lungs – is more dangerous because it is spread through coughing.
A rarer third variant of the diseases is septicaemic plague, which infects the bloodstream.
WHAT ARE THE RISKS?
Plague has killed tens of millions of people around the world in three…
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