https://siberiantimes.com/other/oth...ntine-after-bubonic-plague-claimed-two-lives/
Town in Mongolia closed for quarantine after Bubonic plague claimed two lives
By The Siberian Times
04 May 2019
US, Dutch, Swiss, Swedish, South Korean, German and Russian tourists banned from leaving the area.
A group of foreign and Russian tourists got locked in the city of Uglii where plague claimed lives of a husband and his pregnant wife. Picture: Timur Konev
The Mongolian Ministry of Health confirmed two people - a 38 years old man and his pregnant wife, 37 - died from plague after consuming raw meat and internal organs of a marmot.
Their deaths left four children as orphans aged from two to 13.
Dramatic pictures have shown at least one aircraft being met by anti-contamination emergency workers in a bid to prevent spread of the disease.
The local town of Ulgii (or Ölgii) on the border with Russia was shut for quarantine by Mongolian health authorities and army.
Several dozen tourists from all over the world had to alter their holiday plans, and are now waiting to hear when they might be allowed to leave the town.
Sanitary and epidemiological services in Russia’s Altai and Tuva republics, which neighbour the Bayan-Ölgii province of Mongolia, are on high alert since news broke of the plague outbreak. Pictures: Vesti Rossiya
‘Did you think that the plague was something from the Dark Ages? Us too!! We were just about to leave Ulgii to go deeper into Mongolia, but all exits of the town were shut and we were not allowed to leave. Half of the city is closed due to some plague-contaminated marmots!’ wrote traveler Elena Kovena from Kemerovo who is marooned on the border with her husband Timur.
‘This is just so surreal!’
With a big group of fellow travellers from the US, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea and Germany, the Russians were besieging the authorities, desperate to leave the town.
The tragic family that died from plague got infected after eating raw kidneys of a marmot.
An old Mongolian tradition says that a raw meat and internal organs of freshly killed marmot strengthens health, local media reported.
Russian adventurers Elena and Timur got stuck in the city of Uglii after Bubonic plague killed two people. Pictures: Timur Konev
The Mongolian Ministry of Health stressed they did not think that the situation with the plague was critical or anywhere near epidemic.
Yet there was no deadline announced for the quarantine which in the worst case scenario can last as long as 21 days.
‘We were told to wait for updates on Monday, 6 May’, tourist Timur Konev said.
Speaking from inside the Eagle's Nest hotel, with an international group of stranded tourists sharing drinks and a meal, Timur said: ‘Six nationalities got together earlier today to plan the escape route.
‘We spoke to local administration, to local police, but they didn’t allow us out.’
A group of foreign and Russian tourists got locked in the city of Uglii where plague claimed lives of a husband and his pregnant wife
Sanitary and epidemiological services in Russia’s Altai and Tuva republics, which neighbour the Bayan-Ölgii province of Mongolia, are on high alert since news broke of the plague outbreak.
In Uglii a total of 158 people who came directly or indirectly into contact with the couple are ‘under supervision’.
The plague is a bacterial disease that is spread by fleas living on wild rodents such as marmots.
The disease can kill an adult in less than 24 hours if not treated in time, according to the World Health Organisation.
The plague is believed to be the cause of the Black Death that spread through Asia, Europe and Africa in the 14th century, killing an estimated 50 million people.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsa...-strikes-in-mongolia-why-is-it-still-a-threat
Bubonic Plague Strikes In Mongolia: Why Is It Still A Threat?
May 7, 20195:54 PM ET
Melody Schreiber
Rae Ellen Bichell
The bacterium that causes the plague travels around on fleas. This flea illustration is from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, published in London in 1665.
Getty Images
The medieval plague known as the Black Death is making headlines this month.
In Mongolia, a couple died of bubonic plague on May 1 after reportedly hunting marmots, large rodents that can harbor the bacterium that causes the disease, and eating the animal's raw meat and kidneys – which some Mongolians believe is good for their health.
This is the same illness that killed an estimated 50 million people across three continents in the 1300s. Nowadays, the plague still crops up from time to time, although antibiotics will treat it if taken soon after exposure or the appearance of symptoms.
Left untreated, the plague causes fever, vomiting, bleeding and open, infected sores — and can kill a person within a few days.
The ethnic Kazakh couple died in Bayan-Ulgii, Mongolia's westernmost province bordering Russia and China. It is not clear what treatment they received, if any.
The incident prompted local panic. The government ordered a quarantine for six days for the region, preventing scores of tourists from leaving the area. At least one aircraft was examined by health officials in contamination suits. After no new cases appeared by Monday, the quarantine was lifted.
Every year, according to the U.S. National Center for Zoonotic Disease, at least one person in Mongolia dies from the plague, usually after coming into contact with marmots.
But they probably don't contract the disease from eating the animal's flesh, says David Markman, a researcher at Colorado State University. A person's stomach typically kills a lot of harmful bacteria before the germs are able to cause an infection, Markman says.
Yersinia pestis, the bacterium causing the plague, lives in infected animals, particularly rodents, and is usually spread by fleas. "The vast majority of human cases are a result of contracting it from a flea bite," Markman says — just as mosquitoes transmit malaria from person to person.
A Plague Primer
The plague swept Europe 700 years ago, killing a third of the population. It was called the Black Death, possibly for dark patches caused by bleeding under the skin.
It killed millions in China and Hong Kong in the late 1800s before scientists began associating the illness with rats and eliminating rodent populations.
The plague comes in three forms. If a person gets bitten by an infected flea, they'd most likely develop bubonic plague, named for the painful lumps, or "buboes," where the bacteria multiply. The bacteria can also get into the bloodstream, causing septicemic (or blood poisoning) plague, and can also spread to the lungs, causing pneumonic plague. The World Health Organization considers this variant to be one of the deadliest infectious diseases because it is highly contagious – spread by coughing — and the fatality rate is 100 percent if untreated.
Early symptoms of the plague can mimic the flu — including lethargy and swelling or stiffness in joints and lymph nodes. If someone begins exhibiting these symptoms after coming into contact with rodents or with pets in regions where the plague exists among animal populations, they should seek medical care immediately, Markman says.
Transmission Techniques
The bacterium that causes the plague will hook onto the lining of a flea's gut and stomach, growing into a film that can clog the insect's digestive passage. The next time the flea goes for a blood meal, it pukes into whatever animal it's feeding on (usually a rodent), spreading the bacteria.
Once a rodent is infected, the illness can spread to other wild animals as well as cats, dogs and people within flea-jump range.
"What we see in the West is the fleas will crawl up to the entrance of the burrow and wait for a host to come by," says Ken Gage, who studies vector-borne diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "If they get on another rodent that they can live on, then they've been successful. But they can also jump on humans or on dogs or coyotes or cats."
Sometimes, that new host can transport the fleas a few miles away and spread them to other animals.
Cats, which are highly susceptible to the disease, can also pass the infection to humans directly by coughing, biting and clawing.
The 21st Century Outlook
In modern times, the plague periodically pops up across the globe — though at minor levels compared to its heyday. Between 2010 and 2015, there were more than 3,000 cases reported, with 584 deaths.
The bacterium thrives in dry, temperate areas like the American Southwest and in North and East Africa, South and Central Asia and parts of South America.
The U.S. tends to see between one and 17 human cases a year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the disease likely hitched a ride to the U.S. in 1900 on flea-infested rats, which had boarded steamships in Asia. Since then, infected fleas have taken up residence on rodents including chipmunks, squirrels and prairie dogs across the southwest.
Between 2015 and 2017 in New Mexico, there were 11 cases of the plague in humans, including one death. Paul Ettestad, a public health veterinarian for the New Mexico state health department, says prairie dogs are particularly vulnerable to plague. If a whole colony gets the illness, the bacteria amplify.
"It's like putting a match to a grass prairie," he says. "Whoosh."
In places with poor access to health care, the illness can be deadly on a larger scale. That's what happened in Madagascar. The country sees between 280 and 600 infections annually. But in August 2017, health authorities began seeing an uptick in cases — particularly in pneumonic plague. After more than 200 deaths, the outbreak was contained by late November 2017. Medical teams confirmed suspected cases, treated patients quickly, advised the use of face masks to prevent infection and monitored international travel.
But it's hard to declare a permanent end to an outbreak.
The plague can persist in rodent populations, especially wild ones, for decades without affecting humans – and then can re-emerge.
Markman's research indicates that the plague bacterium can survive and multiply in microbes in soil and water. Markman hypothesizes that when ground-dwelling rodents, like marmots and prairie dogs, dig in the soil, they may encounter the bacterium, then spread it through fleas.
But he cautions that more research needs to be done, saying there are likely many reasons why the plague is still around in 2019.
Melody Schreiber (@m_scribe on Twitter) is a freelance journalist in Washington, D.C.
Town in Mongolia closed for quarantine after Bubonic plague claimed two lives
By The Siberian Times
04 May 2019
US, Dutch, Swiss, Swedish, South Korean, German and Russian tourists banned from leaving the area.
A group of foreign and Russian tourists got locked in the city of Uglii where plague claimed lives of a husband and his pregnant wife. Picture: Timur Konev
The Mongolian Ministry of Health confirmed two people - a 38 years old man and his pregnant wife, 37 - died from plague after consuming raw meat and internal organs of a marmot.
Their deaths left four children as orphans aged from two to 13.
Dramatic pictures have shown at least one aircraft being met by anti-contamination emergency workers in a bid to prevent spread of the disease.
The local town of Ulgii (or Ölgii) on the border with Russia was shut for quarantine by Mongolian health authorities and army.
Several dozen tourists from all over the world had to alter their holiday plans, and are now waiting to hear when they might be allowed to leave the town.
Sanitary and epidemiological services in Russia’s Altai and Tuva republics, which neighbour the Bayan-Ölgii province of Mongolia, are on high alert since news broke of the plague outbreak. Pictures: Vesti Rossiya
‘Did you think that the plague was something from the Dark Ages? Us too!! We were just about to leave Ulgii to go deeper into Mongolia, but all exits of the town were shut and we were not allowed to leave. Half of the city is closed due to some plague-contaminated marmots!’ wrote traveler Elena Kovena from Kemerovo who is marooned on the border with her husband Timur.
‘This is just so surreal!’
With a big group of fellow travellers from the US, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea and Germany, the Russians were besieging the authorities, desperate to leave the town.
The tragic family that died from plague got infected after eating raw kidneys of a marmot.
An old Mongolian tradition says that a raw meat and internal organs of freshly killed marmot strengthens health, local media reported.
Russian adventurers Elena and Timur got stuck in the city of Uglii after Bubonic plague killed two people. Pictures: Timur Konev
The Mongolian Ministry of Health stressed they did not think that the situation with the plague was critical or anywhere near epidemic.
Yet there was no deadline announced for the quarantine which in the worst case scenario can last as long as 21 days.
‘We were told to wait for updates on Monday, 6 May’, tourist Timur Konev said.
Speaking from inside the Eagle's Nest hotel, with an international group of stranded tourists sharing drinks and a meal, Timur said: ‘Six nationalities got together earlier today to plan the escape route.
‘We spoke to local administration, to local police, but they didn’t allow us out.’
A group of foreign and Russian tourists got locked in the city of Uglii where plague claimed lives of a husband and his pregnant wife
Sanitary and epidemiological services in Russia’s Altai and Tuva republics, which neighbour the Bayan-Ölgii province of Mongolia, are on high alert since news broke of the plague outbreak.
In Uglii a total of 158 people who came directly or indirectly into contact with the couple are ‘under supervision’.
The plague is a bacterial disease that is spread by fleas living on wild rodents such as marmots.
The disease can kill an adult in less than 24 hours if not treated in time, according to the World Health Organisation.
The plague is believed to be the cause of the Black Death that spread through Asia, Europe and Africa in the 14th century, killing an estimated 50 million people.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsa...-strikes-in-mongolia-why-is-it-still-a-threat
Bubonic Plague Strikes In Mongolia: Why Is It Still A Threat?
May 7, 20195:54 PM ET
Melody Schreiber
Rae Ellen Bichell
The bacterium that causes the plague travels around on fleas. This flea illustration is from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, published in London in 1665.
Getty Images
The medieval plague known as the Black Death is making headlines this month.
In Mongolia, a couple died of bubonic plague on May 1 after reportedly hunting marmots, large rodents that can harbor the bacterium that causes the disease, and eating the animal's raw meat and kidneys – which some Mongolians believe is good for their health.
This is the same illness that killed an estimated 50 million people across three continents in the 1300s. Nowadays, the plague still crops up from time to time, although antibiotics will treat it if taken soon after exposure or the appearance of symptoms.
Left untreated, the plague causes fever, vomiting, bleeding and open, infected sores — and can kill a person within a few days.
The ethnic Kazakh couple died in Bayan-Ulgii, Mongolia's westernmost province bordering Russia and China. It is not clear what treatment they received, if any.
The incident prompted local panic. The government ordered a quarantine for six days for the region, preventing scores of tourists from leaving the area. At least one aircraft was examined by health officials in contamination suits. After no new cases appeared by Monday, the quarantine was lifted.
Every year, according to the U.S. National Center for Zoonotic Disease, at least one person in Mongolia dies from the plague, usually after coming into contact with marmots.
But they probably don't contract the disease from eating the animal's flesh, says David Markman, a researcher at Colorado State University. A person's stomach typically kills a lot of harmful bacteria before the germs are able to cause an infection, Markman says.
Yersinia pestis, the bacterium causing the plague, lives in infected animals, particularly rodents, and is usually spread by fleas. "The vast majority of human cases are a result of contracting it from a flea bite," Markman says — just as mosquitoes transmit malaria from person to person.
A Plague Primer
The plague swept Europe 700 years ago, killing a third of the population. It was called the Black Death, possibly for dark patches caused by bleeding under the skin.
It killed millions in China and Hong Kong in the late 1800s before scientists began associating the illness with rats and eliminating rodent populations.
The plague comes in three forms. If a person gets bitten by an infected flea, they'd most likely develop bubonic plague, named for the painful lumps, or "buboes," where the bacteria multiply. The bacteria can also get into the bloodstream, causing septicemic (or blood poisoning) plague, and can also spread to the lungs, causing pneumonic plague. The World Health Organization considers this variant to be one of the deadliest infectious diseases because it is highly contagious – spread by coughing — and the fatality rate is 100 percent if untreated.
Early symptoms of the plague can mimic the flu — including lethargy and swelling or stiffness in joints and lymph nodes. If someone begins exhibiting these symptoms after coming into contact with rodents or with pets in regions where the plague exists among animal populations, they should seek medical care immediately, Markman says.
Transmission Techniques
The bacterium that causes the plague will hook onto the lining of a flea's gut and stomach, growing into a film that can clog the insect's digestive passage. The next time the flea goes for a blood meal, it pukes into whatever animal it's feeding on (usually a rodent), spreading the bacteria.
Once a rodent is infected, the illness can spread to other wild animals as well as cats, dogs and people within flea-jump range.
"What we see in the West is the fleas will crawl up to the entrance of the burrow and wait for a host to come by," says Ken Gage, who studies vector-borne diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "If they get on another rodent that they can live on, then they've been successful. But they can also jump on humans or on dogs or coyotes or cats."
Sometimes, that new host can transport the fleas a few miles away and spread them to other animals.
Cats, which are highly susceptible to the disease, can also pass the infection to humans directly by coughing, biting and clawing.
The 21st Century Outlook
In modern times, the plague periodically pops up across the globe — though at minor levels compared to its heyday. Between 2010 and 2015, there were more than 3,000 cases reported, with 584 deaths.
The bacterium thrives in dry, temperate areas like the American Southwest and in North and East Africa, South and Central Asia and parts of South America.
The U.S. tends to see between one and 17 human cases a year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the disease likely hitched a ride to the U.S. in 1900 on flea-infested rats, which had boarded steamships in Asia. Since then, infected fleas have taken up residence on rodents including chipmunks, squirrels and prairie dogs across the southwest.
Between 2015 and 2017 in New Mexico, there were 11 cases of the plague in humans, including one death. Paul Ettestad, a public health veterinarian for the New Mexico state health department, says prairie dogs are particularly vulnerable to plague. If a whole colony gets the illness, the bacteria amplify.
"It's like putting a match to a grass prairie," he says. "Whoosh."
In places with poor access to health care, the illness can be deadly on a larger scale. That's what happened in Madagascar. The country sees between 280 and 600 infections annually. But in August 2017, health authorities began seeing an uptick in cases — particularly in pneumonic plague. After more than 200 deaths, the outbreak was contained by late November 2017. Medical teams confirmed suspected cases, treated patients quickly, advised the use of face masks to prevent infection and monitored international travel.
But it's hard to declare a permanent end to an outbreak.
The plague can persist in rodent populations, especially wild ones, for decades without affecting humans – and then can re-emerge.
Markman's research indicates that the plague bacterium can survive and multiply in microbes in soil and water. Markman hypothesizes that when ground-dwelling rodents, like marmots and prairie dogs, dig in the soil, they may encounter the bacterium, then spread it through fleas.
But he cautions that more research needs to be done, saying there are likely many reasons why the plague is still around in 2019.
Melody Schreiber (@m_scribe on Twitter) is a freelance journalist in Washington, D.C.
