Bubonic plague kills a teenager in Mongolia

A teenage boy has died after three days from bubonic plague after eating Marmots in Mongolia as the meat from the animal contained the deadly disease.

Local media reported that the 15-year old boy caught the bubonic plague developed a high fever after eating the Marmot with friends.

According to Inner Mongolia’s National Centre for Zoonotic Diseases (NCZD), the teenager lived in the Western Mongolian province of Govi-Altai.

Authorities have given warnings have been issued to China and Russia after dozens of people came into contact with the boy.

World Health Organization (WHO) official, Margaret Harris told a UN press briefing in Geneva, “We are monitoring the outbreaks in China, we are watching that closely and in partnership with the Chinese authorities and Mongolian authorities.

She added, “At the moment we are not…considering it high-risk but we are watching it, monitoring it carefully.”

China’s Inner Mongolia health authorities have quarantined 34 people.

A statement from the local authority read, “At present, there is a risk of a human plague epidemic spreading in this city.

“The public should improve its self-protection awareness and ability, and report abnormal health conditions promptly.”

Dr Shanti Kappagoda, an infectious diseases doctor at Stanford Health Care, told news site Heathline, “Unlike in the 14th Century, we now have an understanding of how this disease is transmitted.

“We know how to prevent it. We are also able to treat patients who are infected with effective antibiotics.”