Blast From the Past: Plague Strikes China

Blast From the Past: Plague Strikes China

abcnews.go.com

Over the weekend, news emerged that a variant of the same bacteria that caused the infamous" Black Death" or bubonic plague, in medieval Europe had claimed three lives in the Chinese province of Qinghai, prompting the government to quarantine the town of Ziketan, home to 10,000 people. The bacteria responsible, Yersinia pestis, is the same bacteria that caused the bubonic plague, which wiped out, millions of people in Europe in the fourteenth century.

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Interesting that this is coming around again, just when we expect the H1N1 to become rampant this fall. With the Typhoon in China this past weekend, I hope this doesent spread... I am glad that they are atleast quarantining the area-- could this be the next SARS? Maybe- maybe not. Really I dont see this becoming a pandemic, but I do think its important to know what is happening in China. It seems Mexico and China are the perfect breeding grounds for this kind of problem.

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I am not sure how serious this would be compared to a viral outbreak.

Viral outbreaks tend not to have a readily available or terribly effective treatments.

Yersinia pestis is easily curable through widely available antibiotics.
Most of the deaths that occur today are from untreated persons, or secondary infections that occur while treating the primary infection.

Now if we are dealing with a resistant strain, we may be in trouble.

Edit: Grammer




[edit on 10-8-2009 by Dreamwatcher]

meh cancer's killin us all who cares about the rest.