Attention : Virus outbreak in China

Virus outbreak in China.... 04/08/2009

BEIJING -- Public buses were ordered off the roads of a remote Chinese
town to control the possible spread of deadly pneumonic plague that
has killed three people and seemed poised to claim a fourth victim
Wednesday, residents and authorities said.

One patient hospitalized with the highly infectious lung disease was
"near death" while another person was in serious condition, according
to a notice from the health bureau of northwestern Qinghai province,
where the stricken town of Ziketan is located. Seven others infected
were "basically stable," the notice said.

Police have set up checkpoints around Ziketan, a farming town of
10,000 people in an ethnically Tibetan area, sealing it off to prevent
the spread of the disease that can kill in as few as 24 hours if left
untreated. Residents have reported that some people have tried to flee
the town on foot, though it's unclear if they made it past the
checkpoints.

Authorities have set up a cordon with a 17-mile (28-kilometer) radius
around Ziketan, more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) west of Beijing,
residents say. Calls to the town and provincial public security
bureaus rang unanswered.

Plague claims a 2nd life in northwest China town

BEIJING -- A second man has died of pneumonic plague in northwest
China, in an outbreak that prompted authorities to seal off an entire
town where about a dozen people were infected with the highly
contagious deadly lung disease, a state news agency said.

The man who died Sunday was identified only as 37-year-old Danzin from
Ziketan, the stricken town in Qinghai province, the official Xinhua
News Agency said.

Danzin was a neighbor of the first person who died, a 32-year-old
herdsman whose name was not given. Another 10 people, mostly relatives
of the first deceased man, were infected and undergoing isolated
treatment in hospital, Xinhua said in a report late Sunday.

The town of 10,000 people has been placed under quarantine and a team
of experts was being sent to the area, it said. The local health
bureau warned Sunday that anyone with a cough or fever who has visited
the town since mid-July should seek treatment at a hospital.

Pneumonic plague is spread through the air and can be passed from
person to person through coughing, according to the World Health
Organization. It is caused by the same bacteria that occurs in bubonic
plague - the Black Death that killed an estimated 25 million people in
Europe during the Middle Ages.

While bubonic plague - which is usually transmitted by flea bite - can
be treated with antibiotics if diagnosed early, pneumonic plague is
one of the deadliest infectious diseases. According to the WHO, humans
can die within 24 hours of infection.

Public buses were pulled off the streets, and few shops were open,
according to a food seller living in Ziketan, surnamed Han. The public
have been told to disinfect their homes and shops, he said.

"Yesterday afternoon there were police patrolling on the streets,
advising the shops to close," said Han, who gave only his surname
because of the sensitivity of the issue. "I took a stroll out of my
shop earlier this morning and found that only around 20 shops are open
in town. There are few people or vehicles on the streets."

China has had previous cases of plague, a disease that circulates
mainly among small animals like rats and mice but can also infect
humans. Experts have said most cases in China's northwest occur when
hunters are contaminated while skinning infected animals.

Pneumonic plague is the least common and most deadly form of the
disease. It can be directly spread between humans since the bacteria
is airborne and can easily be inhaled by those in close contact with
infected patients. But if treated early with antibiotics, it is
curable.

The outbreak, first detected July 30, has killed three. There have
been no reports of new infections and authorities continue to track
close contacts of the sickened, the health bureau said.

The three were neighbors, and most of the other sickened people are
relatives of the first victim, a 32-year-old herdsman who became ill
after burying his dog, according to a spokesman with the provincial
government surnamed Wang.

Worldwide, thousands of plague cases are reported each year, mostly in
Africa. Between 1998 and 2008, nearly 24,000 cases were reported,
including about 2,000 deaths, in Africa, Asia, the Americas and
eastern Europe.

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