zerohedge.com: Russia still has the third highest number of COVID-19 infections in the world, behind the United States and Brazil, but this is not the only deadly outbreak it should worry about right now.
In neighboring Mongolia, in an area close to the Russian border, a rare ancient bubonic plague known from history as the Black Death has re-emerged, causing Mongolia to blockade its western territories along the Russian border. No cars or residents from outside are allowed to enter the quarantine territories of the provinces.
Two cases are officially considered confirmed. The sick are two brothers aged 27 and 16, both of whom are now being treated in two separate hospitals after eating groundhog meat.
According to the Mongolian Ministry of Health, the eldest brother has "a very serious condition" and "multiple organ failure." He is currently being treated for both plague and concomitant lung disease.
Bubonic plague can kill within 24 hours and begins with a fever, rapid swelling of the lymph nodes under the arms, neck, or groin. The bacteria can also enter the lungs, causing a rarer form of the disease.
It is believed that the brothers contracted the infection when the carcass of a marmot was cut - during skinning and subsequent cleaning. The disease is usually transmitted by the bites of fleas that live on the body of infected rodents. The region's health authorities have long warned locals about the dangers of eating marmots due to the potential for plague. However, from time to time the inhabitants of the region contract the plague by consuming the raw meat of these animals.
Fearing a potential outbreak of a disease that wiped out a third of Europe's population in the 14th century, Mongolian health authorities began aggressive contact tracing. Xinhua Chinese News reports that at least 146 people have been isolated in local hospitals after contact with infected brothers. The Ministry of Health also said that 504 secondary contacts have been identified.
It is believed that around 2,000 people a year become infected with the bubonic plague worldwide. However, this is not the only “new” health threat that the region is currently concerned about. As we previously reported, approximately half a million Chinese people living in Hebei Province (inside which Beijing is located) are at risk due to fears of a new H1N1 flu strain that “has the potential to become a pandemic.”
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It appeared recently in an already dwindling pig population in China, but scientists say it can infect humans, too, making it look like the H1N1 virus that has long spread across Asia and made its way to North America.
WHO researchers have already flown to Mongolia. It is hoped that they will take this new biological threat more seriously than the coronavirus, the fight against which began only months after the pandemic began to spread.