China Seals Off a Town of 10,000 for Pneumonic Plague

It appears that Chinese people in the town of Ziketan were suffering from the same thing last August as some Ukrainians are now.

China seals off pneumonic plague town - Tania Branigan in Beijing and agencies

A second man has died of pneumonic plague and 10 people are infected in a north-western Chinese town that authorities have sealed off to avoid the spread of the infectious lung disease.

Officials have placed Ziketan and the surrounding part of Qinghai province in quarantine. The local health bureau has urged anyone with a cough or a fever who has visited the town of 10,000 since mid-July to seek treatment.

The lung disease is caused by the same bacterium as bubonic plague. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is the most virulent and least common form of plague, capable of killing sufferers within 24 hours of infection. It spreads through the air and can be passed from person to person by coughing.
Read the rest here:
www.guardian.co.uk...

[edit on 5-11-2009 by 12GaugePermissionSlip]

Oh man... this is going to be one hell of a winter.

I wish I had a bugout for the next 6 months :O

S & F

If this can be confirmed, I think it definately throws some more WTF into the pot. I do not believe in coincidences and there seem to be a lot right now.

Swine Flu I can deal with. Both my kids got it right when school started this year. Missed a week of school and are just fine, however, this new plague stuff is different to me anyway.

Anything that has the term "plague" with it makes me pretty nervous to be perfectly honest. I live in Texas and frankly there is not enough H1N1 vaccine here (if someone wanted it which I do not thank you very much) if something "new" takes off there is not way the US Government could do anything to slow it down or stop it. That is just the truth and you know it.

The country is just to large and we do not have the capability to react quickly. The companies that make vaccines are to few and take to long to put out a product that it seems a large portion of the population does not trust (H1N1) anyway.

Hopefully this will turn out to be very isolated because if it moves we are screwed, maybe not this year but next year for sure. Damn.

Looks like it is spreading. Only a matter of time before we see it the United States.

reply to post by 12GaugePermissionSlip


The article is a few months old....I think the problem there was contained as there is nothing new about this, is there ?

The plague has been in the US for many years and we have about 20 to 30 cases a year.

Do to the fact that hygiene is a lot better in the US and we have better medical facilities its seldom a problem.
www.cdc.gov...
Pneumonic plague is a very aggressive infection requiring early treatment. To reduce the risk of death, antibiotics must be given within 24 hours of first symptoms.[1] Streptomycin, gentamicin, tetracyclines, and chloramphenicol are all effective against pneumonic plague.

Antibiotic treatment for seven days will protect people who have had direct, close contact with infected patients. Wearing a close-fitting surgical mask also protects against infection.[1]

Without treatment, the mortality rate from pneumonic plague approaches 100%.[3]
en.wikipedia.org...

Most forms of the plague require a animal or insect vector to infect humans.
but the pneumonic form is transferred by the air person to person and requires no vector.